Clues
by ItsHayffieSweetheart
Summary: Raven Roth is a detective who has been reassigned to Jump City, where she meets her new partner Garfield Logan. This is her chance to prove herself and build her reputation but Garfield is proving to be the most difficult thing she is faced with. With Captain Grayson depending on the detectives, can they work their feelings out and ultimately save the town and themselves?
1. Chapter 1

Authors Note- Hi there, I'm back with another BBRAE story. For those who have read my previous fic, this is in no way a sequel to my first story but I may put in some tiny references to my first story as I loved it so much. I'm just sort of playing about with an idea here but I'm hoping to develop the story as best as I can. Anyway, enough talking from me, happy reading! (Reviews are always welcome!)

Chapter 1- Another Girl

August 21st, 9:03am

"Detective Logan, can I see you in my office?" The Captain's voice called from his office.

Garfield Logan rolled his eyes and stood up making his way from his desk to the Captain's personal office merely five feet from his workspace.

"What's up Captain?" Garfield asked coolly. He knew exactly what "was up" but still found it was polite to ask first.

Captain Grayson folded over the paperwork on his desk and looked up at the detective.

"No tie?" He asked noting that the detective indeed was not wearing a tie with his plaid shirt.

"Uh… I was in a rush this morning, heh" Garfield answered nervously.

The Captain nodded, "understood. So as you know I have been interviewing many candidates to replace your old partner, Detective Terra, and I'm pleased to tell you that I have found someone."

Garfield shuffled on the spot. He didn't like the idea of a new partner, he had been so comfortable with Terra and they had worked so well together over the years, he still didn't understand how he didn't spot she was a spy sooner.

"Trust me Logan, this one won't treat you the way she did" The Captain reassured.

"So who is my new partner?" Garfield enquired curiously, glancing at the paperwork on Grayson's desk.

"She's on her way here now" Captain Grayson waved his hand dismissively.

Garfield raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Oh, another girl that's… That's cool"

At that moment the elevator doors pinged open and Garfield left the office, ready to meet his new partner.

(Scene Break)

Raven Roth stepped out of the notably unclean elevator into a tiny bullpen. There couldn't be anymore than six desks, each sat two detectives maximum at them. She could see an office squashed at the back along with a briefing room and what looked like a break room.

It was still better than her old precinct.

She spotted a man, with golden blond hair heading towards her. A taller man with black hair and a suit followed him.

The blond boy waved at her, smiling, "Hey there, I'm-"

"Detective Logan" She said in a serious voice.

He seemed shocked, "Uh… Yeah… I'm Garfield Logan"

The man behind him put out his hand, "I'm Captain Dick Grayson, welcome to the Precinct"

"Great" Raven said shaking his hand sternly, "I'm Detective Roth"

"I'm sure you received a copy of the case file I sent you Detective Roth?" The Captain asked while Garfield stared at his new partner, terrified and curious at the same time.

He took in her black hair, angled around her face, with what looked like purple dip dye painting the very ends. She was wearing tight black trousers, a black vest top and a black leather jacket.

She didn't carry any emotion on her face.

He didn't even know her first name.

"Yes I did Captain. I've read through it all and I'm ready to get to work" Detective Roth's voice brought Garfield out of his stare.

"Welcome to the squad" The Captain said and then dismissed her.

Detective Roth turned to Garfield, he believed for a second that she might be striking up a conversation but he was let down, "which ones my desk?" She asked.

Garfield scratched the back of his neck, "Uh, this is your desk…" He said as he walked towards his own desk and pointed to the seat across from his own.

He had looked at that empty seat for months now, and the thought of it being filled by someone else pained him.

"Right there" he said pointing at the seat.

"Okay" was all she said, sitting down and turning the computer monitor on.

"Uh… You got a first name?" Garfield asked, attempting to bond in some way with his new partner.

"Yes" She answered flatly.

"What is it?" Garfield pushed on.

The detective looked up at him, violet eyes burning into bright green, she was clearly pissed off.

"Raven" she said, staring challengingly at Garfield.

Garfield felt like he had accomplished something, and he smiled, "cool, like the bird"

Raven ignored him.

Garfield busied himself reviewing the file: mass robberies, drug ring, missing people, mystery leader.

"Booyah!" Garfield heard the familiar whoop of his Sergeant.

Raven looked up, her eyebrows furrowed as she watched a large man walk into the bullpen, holding a cuffed boy in front of him. The boy in cuffs couldn't have been any older than fourteen.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I've caught the little criminal who thinks it's funny to create dangerous gadgets and sell them to even more dangerous criminals, what is it you call yourself again? Oh yeah, Gizmo" The large man shouted, making sure the whole precinct could hear of his victory.

He put the boy in the holding cell and then made his way over to Garfield to high five him.

"Great work bro!" Garfield congratulated his friend.

The Sergeant cracked his knuckles in front of him, "Ah it was nothin'" he laughed and then spied Detective Roth who had returned to her papers.

"And who is this newbie?" The Sergeant chuckled.

"Oh, uh this is Detective Roth, my new partner" Garfield said.

Raven lifted her eyes to meet The Sergeant's, "Detective Raven Roth" She corrected Garfield.

Garfield was stunned at her ease at telling The Sergeant her name but it seemed so much of a chore to share such information with him.

The Sergeant leaned over the desk, extending his hand, "Sergeant Victor Stone, pleased to meet ya'"

Captain Grayson appeared from him office, "Logan, Roth. There has been a sighting of a suspected drug dealer downtown. I want you head down there now"

The two detectives jumped up to their captain's attention.

Grabbing her leather jacket and shrugging it on, Raven walked swiftly to the elevator, Garfield on her heels.

This was it.

This was her chance to prove herself.

And nothing was going to stand in her way.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2- The Battle Between His Head and His Heart

September 4th, 5:47pm

He was starting to get to know her better.

He knew the way she held her gun, the way she moved when she cuffed a perp, he knew when she was angry her nostrils would flare, he knew that when she was content she would set her mouth upward slightly at the sides.

It was strange to Garfield, the way Raven kept to herself and didn't leave herself too easy to read, but he still managed to notice the slight differences in the way she held herself depending on what mood she was in.

"Hey, Serg! We got another one!" Garfield boasted, exiting the elevator with Raven and a perp on his heels.

"Nice work!" The Sergeant said, high fiving the detective, "How many's that you got now?"

"Seven." Raven said flatly, locking the holding cell.

"In three weeks" Garfield grinned.

"You guy's work pretty well together huh?" The Sergeant smiled.

"Whatever" Raven shrugged and went to her desk to begin writing up her arrest form for yet another arrest.

Not that she would admit it out loud, but she and Detective Logan did make a good crime fighting team.

(Scene Break)

"Okay people! I'm goin' home!" The Sergeant announced, Garfield had noticed that his friend had been watching the small clock on the wall for the past hour, eagerly awaiting the hands to strike 9.

When they did, the large man let out a whoop of joy, already wearing his coat and hauling his bag over his shoulder, "See y'all tomorrow!"

Garfield waved goodbye. Raven looked up at the Sergeant and gave him a curt nod.

At least it was something.

It was more attention than she gave Garfield anyway.

Now, Garfield and Raven were the only two detectives left in duty in the precinct. The only people left on their floor of the building was them, The Captain, and the Captain's secretary.

As Raven realised who was left in her company, the secretary spoke.

"Good friends, The Captain wishes to speak with you!" She sang, long pink hair swishing from side to side.

Garfield had explained to Raven that the secretary was from another country, one he hadn't even heard of for that matter, and that she went by Starfire as it was a rough translation of her name, which was apparently almost impossible to pronounce. Raven had only nodded when she received this information, repeating the name "Starfire" and then had gone back to work. Garfield had had expected the strange origins of their secretary to at least strike up a conversation with his partner, but yet again he had been unsuccessful.

Garfield exhaled as he made his way to the Captain's office, wondering what he had done wrong this time.

Raven was behind him wondering the exact same thing.

(Scene Break)

Captain Grayson looked pale. Not that the two detectives ever seen him show much emotion, it was always as if he was wearing a mask.

But right now, as the two detectives watched their captain's face carefully, they knew something was worrying him.

"Detectives" the Captain greeted them as they walked into the room by standing up and walking around from behind his desk. He made it his mission to makes sure the door was closed, and then he leaned against his desk, his eyebrows furrowed, "I have received information about one of your current cases"

"The drug ring?" Garfield asked, his ears perking up.

Captain Grayson nodded.

"The thing is... It appears I know the suspect, and I guess you could say our history is not pretty."

Raven cocked her head to the side, ever so slightly, "Who is he?" She asked softly.

Garfield looked at her from the corner of his eye. This was the first time he had heard her sound so gentle, and it amazed him.

She was genuinely concerned.

"Slade Wilson" The Captain answered grimly.

Garfield's eyes bulged, "You were the cop who took down Slade Wilson?!" He gasped in amazement.

Captain Grayson was not impressed at Detective Logan's outburst.

"I tried to 'take him down' as you put it, but he never got convicted. He did swear his revenge but I brushed it off. If I were him I would've left the city and never return, but apparently he decided to stay, and restart his business."

"Who is Slade Wilson?" Raven asked, feeling almost left out of the conversation because of her lack of knowledge on the suspect.

Garfield whipped his head round to face his partner with a look of shock.

"Seriously?!" He asked, his voice becoming extremely high.

Raven did not say anything.

Garfield threw his hands up in exasperation, "How can you not know who Slade Wilson is?! Have you been living under a rock your whole life?"

Again Raven did not say anything, but Garfield saw something flicker in her eyes, something painful.

He took his register down as he calmed himself, "Slade Wilson was one of the most feared men in Jump City. He would kidnap young kids and train them to be whatever he wanted: fighters, thieves, drug dealers- anything. He practically owned every shop in town, at one point he owned half of the police force. He was ruthless, but no one ever seen his face. That was until the Captain here managed to track him down and arrest him, but as he said he was never convicted. After that he went under the radar. People stopped going missing, shop owners got their business' back, the police force was returned to order. Everything was back to normal."

"Or so we thought" Captain Grayson sighed.

"Wait" Garfield said, sensing his Captain's almost fearful tone, "you don't really think his threats were serious do you?"

The Captain went back to his seat and almost collapsed into it, "It's hard to say… we don't know for certain if Wilson is behind this. That's why I called you in here. I need you to do a stake out tomorrow."

Both Garfield and Raven both said "a stake out?" In sync. Garfield had said it excitedly whilst Raven sounded almost pained by the thought of doing nothing but sitting in a car with Garfield for a whole day.

There was a chap at the door and everyone faced the doorway. Starfire was standing, a bunch of papers in her hands, looking guilty as she had interrupted something.

"Can I help you, Starfire?" Captain Grayson asked, his mood suddenly brightening at her arrival.

Raven suddenly felt like she was the one interrupting something. She cleared her throat in a way that went almost completely unnoticed by everyone, save for Garfield.

For him, it was one of the most human things he had witnessed Raven do in the time he had known her. And he would be getting more of a chance to get to know her tomorrow.

He felt his heart flutter with excitement.

He drowned in confusion, but shrugged it off.

It was probably just the excitement of taking down a bad guy, right?

"Where do you want us to stake out?" Raven deadpanned, breaking both the strange tension building between Captain Grayson and Starfire, and the battle between Garfield's head and his heart.

The Captain answered Detective Roth's enquiry, "An abandoned factory near the river. 10am tomorrow morning. You are dismissed."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3- Car Conversations

September 5th, 11:30am

Raven had lost count of the amount of potato chips she had crunched under her foot since she had entered Garfield's car.

The Captain made a point of not looking suspicious, so he had convinced her, much to her own dismay, that it made sense to take Garfield's dated Sedan in place of a sleek black BMW, which was their usual vehicle of choice whilst on the job.

There had been no sightings of anyone in the time they had been sitting there. Raven had had the chance to enjoy the silence for roughly one minute before Garfield had started talking.

And he hadn't stopped.

His voice was somewhat comforting to her ears, and she would be lying if she said she'd rather be alone.

She sneaked a look at her partner, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel along to the beat of a song, his blond hair swishing at the tips, green eyes closed.

She let herself smile while he couldn't see.

When was the last time she properly just spent time with another person?

Too long, she told herself.

The song was coming to an end, and Garfield opened his eyes.

Raven snapped her eyes away as quickly as she could.

But not quickly enough.

"Wow there, Detective Roth, did I just witness you smile?" Garfield joked, turning the radio down and moving in his chair to face her.

Raven's cheeks burned in frustration.

"No" she said flatly.

"Oh c'mon!" He protested, "I'm a detective, I can tell when people are lying, and you ma'am are lying to me right now!"

Raven faced out of the window in front of her, "I'm not a ma'am." Was all she said.

Garfield chuckled, "So, did you do anything interesting last night?"

Raven turned back to him, her cheeks now their usual pale colour, "In the twelve hours I wasn't working?" She asked sarcastically making Garfield smirk.

It shocked her each time he done this. Usually Raven's cold remarks scared people off, sometimes even offended them, but Garfield never seemed dazed by what she said, he would just move on, make the situation brighter.

"Okay fair point. I was just tryna' get a conversation going you know?" He laughed.

Raven looked down at the litter filled floor, she was sure she spotted a shirt and tie under all that mess, "I'm not the conversation type."

Garfield wiggled his eyebrows, "I like a challenge."

Raven lifted her eyes up again, her violet eyes meeting his bright green ones. She felt almost bare, the way he was looking at her, it was like he was reading her without even trying.

After taking a look at the warehouse they were watching and confirmed that there had been no movement he moved himself so that he was sitting fully turned towards Raven. "What about me? Anything you wanna' know about Detective Garfield Logan?"

"How are you a detective?" She said so quickly that she didn't even realise how mean it sounded. She winced.

Thankfully, Garfield took the question lightly, "Well… It was just sorta like, after my parents died I sorta felt like I didn't have anyone left to impress. I may have fallen into a pattern of petty crime. Tried to get into gangs, done some shoplifting, I don't really know what I was tryna' do. Eventually, more like thankfully, I found two people who took me in and they just happened to be police officers. They taught me how to be the person I am today, and I'm forever grateful for that. Without them, I'd probably be in prison. But I changed my life around, got into the academy, became a good detective, I finally felt like I was doing something good in my life... Heh, I'm talking too much" Garfield blushed.

Ultimately, Raven was taken aback by his openness. He had just shared personal information with her without thinking about it.

The dark haired girl shook her head, "No, you're not. It's good that you found your way."

"How about you?" Garfield asked, stretching his arms out.

She should say something, Raven reasoned with herself.

It had been a long time since she'd shared anything with someone.

It had been a long time since someone had been interested.

"Promise you won't question anything I say?" She asked first, testing the waters, avoiding eye contact with her partner.

Feeling the tension in the car heighten, Garfield shifted, not entirely sure about what was going to be said.

He hadn't known her long, but he could swear he could see sadness in her eyes.

At least he was finally getting to know her.

Raven took a deep breath, as if the sentence was going to be strenuous. "I wanted to prevent people from having the same experiences as I did."

Listening closely, Garfield waited for Raven to continue, but she stayed silent.

"Seriously?! That's all?!" The detective laughed.

Raven scowled, at least that's what Garfield thought she was doing with her face.

"I think it's more than enough" Raven stated, hurt that Garfield wasn't taking her seriously.

"C'mon Rae, I told you a full story. All you can give me is you wanted to change people's experiences?" Garfield asked shaking his head.

"What did you just call me?" Raven's eyes pierced through Garfield's.

The atmosphere in the room had shifted dramatically from almost friendly to distant.

At the same time, both of the detectives noticed a figure emerging from the factory that they were staking out.

And just like that, they were no longer Raven and Garfield trying to get to know each other: they were Detective Roth and Detective Logan, about to make an arrest.

Garfield grunted a little, reaching into his holster for his gun and letting himself out of the car.

"Detective Roth" Garfield said unenthusiastically, "your name is Detective Roth." He then proceeded to walk ahead, cursing himself for his negligence of Raven's feelings.

He wanted her to like him.

He understood that she entered the force because of a deep childhood problem, but he didn't want to open up that wound for her.

He knew it would be almost unbearable for him to see her upset, and it scared him.

He knew he had only known her for a short time, but he knew he wanted to know more, so much more about this incredible girl that had walked into his life.

Yet, he didn't know why he felt so strongly about her when he knew almost nothing about her.

And he really had to figure it out.

Turning his head to check that Raven was behind him, and confirming that she was. She had her eyes trained on the factory and was looking right past him. Garfield approached the factory, his gun outstretched, his head spinning and his heart hammering in his chest.

Suddenly, he felt a smack on the head, followed by a gunshot.

Within seconds his world went black.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4- Partners

September 6th, 3:57pm

Wincing in pain, Garfield sat up, his vision blurry. He took in his surroundings as he began to retrace the last time he was conscious.

Raven, smack, gunshot.

He sat up straighter.

Raven! Had the gunshot hit her?

As he thought this, a beeping sound could be heard, becoming faster and faster, in time with his heart beat.

He was hooked up to a heart rate monitor as he lay in a hospital bed.

Hearing the alarming increase in heart rate, a nurse ran in with a concerned look.

Her face relaxed when she was that Garfield was awake.

"Detective Logan" she observed with pale blue eyes, "welcome back"

Garfield squeezed his eyes closed, afraid to even wanting to think about what happened to his partner, "Uh, how long was I out for? What happened to me?"

The nurse produced a clipboard from a nearby cupboard and flick through the paper attached to it.

"You sustained a minor concussion. No surgery was needed, but you were unconscious for over twenty-four hours. You were very lucky" She smiled warmly.

The words, "You were very lucky", echoed in Garfield's mind.

Very lucky. Lucky compared to who?

He felt sick.

"If it weren't for your partner, you would possibly be in a coma right now… Or worse." The Nurse added adjusting his monitor.

"My partner? Is she okay?" Garfield forced himself to ask.

The nurse nodded and relief washed through him.

"She's been waiting in the hallway all night" The nurse said, "I'll go fetch her for you"

(Scene Break)

Raven must have fallen asleep, as she felt a soft hand on her shoulder whispering "wake up detective".

She opened her eyes sleepily, her neck was stiff from sleeping upright.

"Detective, your partner has woken up. He has no serious injuries. You can go see him if you like." A nurse said to her.

Although she was tired and sore, Raven jumped to attention.

"Thanks" she said to the nurse and stood up shakily.

Fighting through the fatigue, Raven made her way to Garfield's room, having already paced back and forth to and from it all night.

She expected to walk in and see him lying half asleep on the bed, but of course he wasn't.

Garfield was sitting upright on a pile of pillows, smiling brightly as if the previous night hadn't happened.

"Hey" Raven said stopping inches from Garfield's bed, "How are you feeling"

Garfield beamed, "Awh, Raven, you really care!" He said playfully.

Rolling her eyes, Raven folded her arms, "Good to see you didn't sustain any brain injuries." She said sarcastically, but it was clear that she was genuinely relieved.

Garfield scratched the back of his neck, "heh, yeah." He looked down and the white crisp bedsheets, "what exactly happened?"

Raven raised her eyebrows, "You don't remember?"

Shaking his head, Garfield sighed, "I remember going toward the factory. I got hit, heard a gunshot and then… nothing."

"I was the one who fired the shot, if that's what you're wondering" Raven said in her usual monotone.

Garfield's eyes widened, "You shot someone?"

"In the shoulder. He gave you a possible fatal blow, I had to stop him from doing any more damage" Raven said casually.

"You could've killed him." Garfield observed.

Raven smiled ever so slightly, "I made sure I didn't."

"Wow, Raven Roth, are you saying that you saved my life?" Garfield teased, a smile playing on his lips.

"Whatever" Raven droned, "You would've done the same for me. We're partners" She avoided looking in his eyes as she let the moment settle.

An awkward silence followed.

"I should get going" Raven announced, breaking the strange tension.

Garfield nodded, "okay. I guess I'll see you at work, partner." He gave her cheeky wink.

Once again she rolled her eyes, but Garfield could've sworn he saw a hint of colour in her cheeks.

Whether she liked it or not, they were finally becoming friends.

(Scene Break)

Sergeant Stone rubbed his temples as he sat at his desk, relieved. He had just gotten the call from the hospital informing him that his best friend was alive and unharmed.

"Sergeant?" The Captain said making his way to Victor's desk, "I believe you heard the good news?"

The Sergeant nodded, "Yeah. I know the lil' guy would pull through" he smiled.

"Isn't it wonderful!" Starfire sang, joining her colleagues. When she had heard about the incident, she had broken down in tears, but now that everything was confirmed as being okay, she was back to being her usual joyful self.

"Not so wonderful for the perp" The Sergeant pointed out, "heard Raven gave him a clean shot the shoulder. He was in a lot of pain. Serves him right, tryna' mess with Jump City's finest." He put his hand up in a high five stance, momentarily forgetting that his buddy wasn't there to complete the action with him. Victor coughed a little, "so, any idea when we can bring him in for questioning?"

Captain Grayson gave the Sergeant an affirmative look, "The hospital said he will be fit to be discharged in the next two days. I think it's only right that Detectives Roth and Logan question him."

Nodding, the Sergeant sat back in his chair, "Think I could go see him at some point today Captain?"

"I don't see why not. You can go just now if you like, as long as your paperwork is done." Captain Grayson said.

The Sergeant let out one of his trademark "Booyah's" and handed the Captain his case files, completed and ready to be filed away.

"Give our friend the Detective Logan love from us" Starfire said as The Sergeant made his way to the elevator.

"Yeah, course Star. I'll send him your love!" He called back to her as the elevator door pinged open.

(Scene Break)

By the time she got home, Raven was exhausted.

She couldn't believe how easy it had been to pull the trigger. How quickly she had responded to the threat. Her psychiatrist had said it could take months, years even before she would be able to shoot again. After the last incident, she didn't thing she would ever put a bullet in someone. And yet she had. And she had done it so easily.

It was almost second nature. She couldn't let him die.

But why not?

There were the obvious reasons of moral and it being the right thing to do. But she knew that she had acted out of selfishness. She knew that she did not need to shoot that perp. But she had. To make sure Garfield didn't get hurt.

She was tired, and wasn't thinking straight.

Garfield was nothing more than a colleague to her, maybe borderline friend.

A borderline friend who wanted to actually get to know her.

Raven squeezed her eyes tightly to silence her thoughts.

It was 5pm and she had been awake for longer than she could remember. Closing her eyes, she whispered the words that her mother would sing to her as a child. She was never sure what they had meant, but they soothed her, whenever she was scared, angry, or just could not control her emotions.

"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos." She repeated the melody, her voice growing quieter and her body weaker, and soon she was enveloped in Garfield filled dreams, much to her own delight and horror.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5- Tofu and Mint

September 10th, 12:17pm

He didn't want to worry his squad, but Captain Grayson was becoming increasingly concerned about the threats he was receiving from Slade's accomplices. At least, he guessed that's who they were.

He was, of course, one of the best detectives in the city. So good that he had made Captain before the age of thirty.

Fair enough, that was partly because his adoptive father was a millionaire, and possibly one of the most powerful men in all of Gotham.

Dick knew that him being captain was not solely because of his brilliant detective skills, but he was a pretty good detective if he did say so himself.

He heard the familiar whoop of The Sergeant, accompanied by the smell of food.

Lunch time, he thought to himself smiling.

He knew that in seconds, Detective Logan and Sergeant Stone would be arguing over the food choice.

They took it in turns to buy lunch every week, and The Captain was sure that it was The Sergeant's turn today.

He really shouldn't encourage their childish argument, but if he was being perfectly candid, he enjoyed the entertainment.

Nowadays, it was one of the few joys he could experience since the threats had begun.

Although he hadn't admitted it, Slade Wilson made The Captain feel extremely uneasy. His return could cause the disruption of everything he had built, his friendships, his relationship (of which he was secretly having with his secretary) and most importantly, his life.

(Scene Break)

"Dude!" Garfield moaned staring down at the meat covered pizza, his face twisted in disgust.

Victor laughed, grabbing a slice and stuffing it in his mouth, he spoke while he ate, "C'mon man, you're lookin' pretty weak. You gotta' build up those muscles, and you ain't gonna' do it by eatin' that tofu stuff!"

"Excuse me! I don't only eat tofu, I eat protein substitutes too! And I'll have you know that I do have muscles!" Garfield protested.

The Sergeant laughed through mouthfuls of pizza, "whatever dude. Believe what you want" He swallowed down his last chunk of food.

Angry, and in self defence, Garfield began to roll up his sleeve to prove his point.

Raven, who had been pretending to not be listening, choked on her own breath. She allowed her eyes to travel up to her partner.

He was struggling to roll his right green plaid shirt up past his elbow.

Relieved, Raven looked back to her work, guessing that the man had given up on showing his arms.

She was wrong.

Having realised that he would not be able to show off his biceps by simply rolling up his sleeves, Garfield chose a surprisingly different way to perform the task.

Hearing the Sergeant spit out his food in surprise, Raven looked up to find her partner shirtless.

And boy, did he look good.

Her violet eyes took in every inch of his skin, his toned torso, and yes, his surprisingly buff biceps.

The Sergeant was on his feet, applauding his friend. He caught Raven checking out Garfield and cocked his eyebrow.

She quickly looked away, cheeks burning.

"Told you!" Garfield said.

"Alright, alright!" Victor flung his hands up in defeat, "You been workin' out lately? Last time I saw those arms they were twigs"

Happy at his triumph, Garfield grinned "Yeah… Well they're more like trees now!"

Victor shook his head at Garfield's terrible joke, "Oh man that was bad"

His cheeks turned a shade darker, "hehe" he scratched his neck, sudden self conscious that the was standing topless in his work, he knew the Captain wouldn't be happy.

Almost like the Captain was reading Garfield's thoughts, he spoke from his position in the doorway, "Logan, I get tired of having to tell you to wear a tie, but do I now have to remind you to wear a shirt too?"

"Uh, no Sir, sorry. I was just… Just…" Garfield stuttered nervously.

"Going for lunch" Raven said, throwing him his shirt, her face completely straight, "The Sergeant forgot about Logan's dietary choices. This was his way of protesting apparently" she said to the Captain.

Using her violet eyes, Raven signalled to Garfield to put his shirt on- NOW.

"Uh, yeah! That's what we are doing, gonna' get lunch!" Garfield said, thankful to his partner for covering for him.

Quickly putting his shirt back on, Garfield ran through the bullpen after Raven, catching her just before the elevator doors closed.

"Thanks for that" Garfield said genuinely.

Raven shrugged, "just make sure you keep your shirt on in the future"

Garfield winked "I can't promise anything"

(Scene Break)

The Sergeant swivelled in his seat to face his superior, "You really believe that bogus excuse?" He asked surprise.

Captain Grayson shook his head, "I saw the whole thing, I know she was lying."

"So why'd you not say so?"

The Captain flashed a rare smile, it was good to smile again after how low he had been feeling lately, "Call it a hunch, but I see something between them. I suppose nothing can really happen though unless they spend enough time together. Plus, it's fun to watch Garfield when he's nervous"

Victor nodded in agreement, "The lil' grass stain is pretty funny at everythin' he does. Don't tell him I said that though! He'd never shut up about it" he paused to readjust himself. "Do you really see somethin' between 'em?"

The Captain leaned forward, placing his hands on Sergeant Stone's desk, "I think we both know you see it too"

"And you're okay with workplace relationships?" Victor asked coking his eyebrow.

Captain Grayson glanced at his secretary and then focussed back on The Sergeant, "as long as it doesn't interfere with work, I am perfectly fine with it. However, I think they may need a little push in the right direction"

"Whoa, you got a plan or somethin'?" Victor asked, shocked at his captain's casual attitude.

The Captain nodded "I may, I just may"

(Scene Break)

"No" Raven said, grabbing Garfield's shoulder and pushing him in the opposite direction.

He had been heading towards his car when he had been pulled off of his path.

"What are we gonna' walk?" Garfield inquired.

Rolling her eyes, Raven shook her head, "no" she said again.

Raven stopped in front of a sleek dark blue car. It was roughly five years old but had no bumps or scrapes, unlike Garfield's.

"You could walk if you want" Raven said sarcastically, unlocking the car, "but I'd prefer to take my car"

Garfield considered sticking out his tongue, but he didn't want to seem so childish. Opening the passenger door, her got into Raven's car.

As he sat down, his eyes fluttered closed in delight, "what is that smell?" He asked as he inhaled a delightful smell.

Raven frowned as she turned the key in the ignition, "what smell?"

Garfield leaned forward, dangerously close to Raven.

She tensed up.

"It smells like… Like vanilla and something like… Like leaves or something" He said through long inhales and exhales. He leaned closer and closer into the smell, before he knew it, his nose brushed something smooth, where the smell was the strongest.

His eyes flew open, Raven was glaring down at him as his nose was brushing her arm.

Moving back to his side he smiled, "It's you! You smell good!"

"We've been working together for months and you have only just realised what I smell like?" Raven observed, ignoring the hot blood running through her veins. His touch had caused an electric volt to surge through her.

"Yeah. Wait do you know what I smell like?" Garfield asked, eyes wide with curiosity.

Raven was silent, she began to reverse out of her spot.

"You do! Ha ha ha! You know what I smell like!" Garfield whooped.

Raven shrugged, "it's not that big of a deal. I notice everyone's smell."

"So… Tell me what I smell like then partner!" He pressed.

Reluctantly Raven answered, "Like tofu and mint"

"Mint? Really?" Garfield asked in surprise.

She shrugged, "it's probably your toothpaste"

Garfield stretched his arms out, "tofu and mint" he repeated happily, "so where are we going?" He asked as he looked out of the window, they were passing a familiar row of restaurants and café's.

Raven didn't take her eyes off of the road as she answered "To eat"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6- Lunch Date, Sort Of.

September 10th, 2:34pm

Raven's nostrils flared in agitation. She and Garfield had been circling the same block for ten minutes, debating where to go to eat.

Garfield insisted on the "awesome" vegan place on the corner, Raven preferred the idea of the book café.

"This is hopeless" Raven stated as the pulled onto the block once again.

True, the street had many places to eat, roughly fifty in total, but there was nowhere they could agree on.

"I have an idea" Garfield spoke from his passenger seat.

Raven glanced over at him, taking in his bored look.

"Stop the car" He said.

"What?!"

"Stop the car" He said again, reaching for his door handle.

Pulling into the side, Raven killed the engine.

As soon as they stopped Garfield jumped out of the vehicle.

Raven followed him out to the sidewalk, "This is your idea?" She asked, observing the busy street and taking in the mixed aroma of food.

Garfield wiggled his eyebrows, "Pick a number"

Crossing her arms over her chest, Raven stayed silent.

"C'mon! Just pick a number" Garfield encouraged playfully.

Raven rolled her eyes, "four"

Garfield grinned, "Great! Now we start counting!"

"Counting what?"

"Our steps!"

Before Raven had the chance to question why he thought they need to count a mere four steps, he had her by the arm and was marching down the street, counting out loud, "one, two, three, four, five…"

It occurred to Raven when Garfield was still counting well after he had reached one hundred, that he was counting to four thousand.

(Scene Break)

Four thousand steps later the detectives where standing far down the street, away from the smells and noises of the restaurants.

"Great" Raven remarked, staring at the empty units and boarded up windows.

"Yeah!" Her partner cried enthusiastically.

She gave him a death glare which didn't faze him, "What, you want us to feast on air?"

Garfield laughed, "No, look" he pointed a tan arm out in front of him in the direction of a tiny café across the road, "It says it caters for vegetarians! But it still sells meat, not that I agree with that" He said reading the sign from quite a distance.

Raven was amazed at how he could read it from where they were standing, "How did you read that?" She asked.

Garfield scratched his neck, as he always did when he was nervous as Raven had noticed, "Uh… I dunno, the doctors say I have some sort of heightened senses, almost animalistic. It's the same with my hearing and my sense of smell. It's pretty cool"

Raven did not say anything, but simply nodded her head, gesturing that they should cross the road.

(Scene Break)

The café was beautiful on the inside.

Small booths decorated the perimeter of the room, with round tables filling the centre. There were fake silver chandeliers giving off light, and a stage was discarded in the corner. The walls were gold and lilac, and there were barely any windows.

Raven liked it very much.

A waitress with a lip ring greeted them when they entered, "Hey there, table for two?"

"Yeah please" Garfield said.

"You've come at the perfect time! Couples eat for half price today!" She smiled, leading them to a booth.

Raven was quick to point out that they were indeed not a couple. Garfield frowned knowing that he would now have to pay full price.

The waitress looked to Garfield for confirmation, Raven was sure she saw something light up on her eyes.

"Oh, that's too bad" The waitress said smiling at Garfield playfully and, handing them some menus, "Can I get you some drinks?"

Raven felt her stomach twist in annoyance at the waitress' flirting with Garfield, but of course she would not acknowledge the feeling.

"A tea" Raven quickly said.

The waitress gave her a confused look, but scribbled down her request.

"A coke for me" Garfield said smiling, attempting to make up for his partner's rudeness.

The waitress quickly wrote down their order and left, but not without s second look back at Garfield.

"Do you have to be so rude?" Garfield asked Raven when the waitress had left.

"Do you have to be so annoying?" She snapped back.

Garfield leaned back in his seat, "I guess your last partner wasn't the best huh?" He asked, softening his tone. He knew by the way she looked at him after he had said it that he was correct.

"This has nothing to do with my last partner, I just find you incredibly annoying." Raven lied.

Putting his hands up in defeat, Garfield shrugged, "Okay, whatever you say. But for the record my last partner really let me down."

Once again, Garfield was attempting to speak to her, and again she was shooting him down. It was like like an internal battle between her head and her heart and her head almost always won.

But not this time.

Lifting her eyes to meet his, she invited him to share with a nod of her head.

"I mean there's not much to tell. Her name was Terra, we got on great together, I mean we spent nearly every hour of the day together so we had to get on well but for me it was something more. I was gonna' tell her… You know after our big bust that we had been workin' on for months, I'd finally plucked up the courage to ask her." Garfield paused to let Raven process his story so far. "So the night we were gonna' make the arrest, the whole team was there, it was a big one, a terrorist organisation that had been hiding out in caves and stealing explosives from quarries across the city. We had tracked them down to a dormant volcano on one of the islands north of the city. It was gonna' be my big night, biggest case of my career and possibly the night I begin to date my future wife. But it couldn't be that simple for me. I won't bore you with the details but basically she ended up holding a gun to my head, and not because she was being forced to. It turns out she was the leader of the terrorist group, she was a spy. I can't explain how devastated I was in that moment…"

Garfield's eyes had gone glassy but his voice did not falter.

"I loved her and she laughed in my face, told me how pathetic I was, how I never meant anything to her… And that's when the rocks fell. The volcano began to shake and she was crushed in front of me. We had to run in case the volcano was going to erupt. But even though she had just threatened to kill me I still wanted to help her. I wanted to give her another chance, for her to explain everything to me. But now… she's really gone…" He closed his eyes as he felt the familiar pain in his chest.

He opened them again when perhaps the most shocking thing that happened to him all day occurred, Raven rested her hand on top of his for a brief second.

"I understand" She nodded removing her hand slowly as to not make the moment awkward.

Garfield grinned through the pain, "I knew you had partner trouble"

Raven set her mouth in a thin line, "Unfortunately my tale is not as heartbreaking as yours"

"Try me" Garfield encouraged.

The waitress bounced over, setting their drinks down on the table. "Hey, are you ready to order some food?"

They both ordered their lunch and the waitress walked off, ponytail swishing from side to side as she done so. It would appear that Garfield's charm had fuelled her good mood.

"So... You were saying?" Garfield said, leaning closer in to Raven.

"I had a partner, he wasn't a good guy." She said.

Inside she was screaming out the whole story, the highs and lows, how long it took her to get over it. The nightmares that still haunt her. Yet all she could say were eleven syllables.

The look of disappointment was as clear as the nose of Garfield's face.

"Look," Raven tried to explain.

"I get it Rae, you're not ready to tell me everything. It's cool. I like gettin' to know you. At least this way you can't bore me with the same stories" Garfield laughed kindly.

Raven let the sneaky "Rae" slide.

"I appreciate it. I am sorry for what your old partner did to you. Just, don't worry okay? I'm not a spy and you'll definitely never get bored of my stories?" Raven softly said.

"And why's that?"

"Because you'll barely ever hear them" Raven half joked.

Garfield grinned, "I hope not, I really hope not"

(Scene Break)

"Here's your bill" the waitress said placing a saucer down in front of the two detectives. She reached into her back pocket, produced her notepad and then scribbled something down, ripping it off and handing it to Garfield, "If you ever want to hear the specials just call" she said with a wink and bounced off.

Raven's eyes burned into the back of the other girl's head.

Garfield blushed slightly but still put the number into his own pocket, "wait till I tell the Serg"

Raven rolled her eyes as she placed a ten down on the table to cover her half, thankfully Garfield didn't object, "I would pay your half but I'm a feminist and believe that you shouldn't feel like I'm expecting anything from you by buying you food."

"And I'm paying for my meal because I know for a fact that you can't afford more than your own half" Raven pointed out in her usual monotone.

"Raven Roth, you could possibly be the greatest detective in Jump City, present company excluded of course." The detective joked.

"You should tell the captain that" Raven said as they left the café and headed four thousand steps back to her car.

It was getting dimmer out and Raven looked to her watch to find that it was nearing six pm.

Had she really spent that much time with Garfield without realising it?

He was a delight to be around most of the time.

"Do you realise how late it is? The Captain is going to be mad for us taking a three hour lunch break"

"Chill out, it'll be fine" Garfield said with ease, "it's not the first time I've done it"

Raven shook her head, "why doesn't that surprise me?"

Checking her phone for the first time since she had left the precinct, Raven sucked in her breath sharply. Eighteen missed calls from the Captain, another six from the Sergeant and ten from her usual harasser.

She hadn't realised that she'd stopped in her steps. Garfield peered over her shoulder and skimmed over the missed call notifications.

Hey noticed the unfamiliar name, "Hey who's-"

"None of your business" Raven snapped, shoving her phone into her pocket.

Garfield flinched at the harshness in her voice. He knew she got angry easily but he hadn't seen her quite so frustrated about something so little.

It had seemed to change her mood completely.

They walked in silence back to Raven's car.

It was awkward and uncomfortable.

Garfield had contemplated speaking up, lightening the mood, but had decided not to.

Raven had staked ahead, her jacket hood pulled up even though it was not raining.

She hated the way she had acted towards Garfield, but she didn't know any other way of reacting. The last thing she wanted was for him to get involved in her mess.

Couples passed them, heading to the restaurants for the night, dressed in fancy clothes.

Garfield observed them with pain in his heart, that could have been us, he thought inwardly.

His eyes moved from the happy couples to his partner marching ahead of him.

"That could be us" He whispered so quietly that he barely heard himself.

He kicked himself for thinking of such a ridiculous thing.

Laughing to himself he shook his head, "Me and Raven, yeah right."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7- Similar

October 29th, 5:43pm

"Hey G, any word on the party?!" The Sergeant boomed as Garfield walked out of the lift, his partner by his side.

His eyes lit up at the mention of the party, "Maybe" He smiled.

Raven rolled her eyes, here they were, grown men who were getting excited over a party like little girls.

Leaving the two boys to discuss their Halloween plans, Raven headed to the Captain's office to inform him that she and Garfield had made yet another arrest on the Slade Wilson case.

"Detective Roth" The Captain nodded from his seat behind his desk as she entered the room.

"Captain" she greeted back.

"Am I to believe that you and Logan have arrested yet another suspect?"

The detective nodded.

Standing up and crossing the room, Captain Grayson closed the door, confusing Raven.

"Please take a seat" He said, gesturing for her to sit down.

She did so, her trousers sliding over leather. Her heart began to speed up.

There was a cold feel in the room.

It was all too like the last time, when her captain sat her down and told her she would be being relocated, that she was too much of a risk in the precinct.

"I want you to know that what I say in this office will stay exclusively between us" Captain Grayson began and Raven tensed up, "Your previous captain contacted me earlier today to check on how you were doing here. Of course I let him know that you were exceeding my expectations and you have arrested almost double the usual monthly amount. I had to tell him how surprised I was that he had let such an amazing detective go… He explained to me the events that led to your relocation. I must say I was disappointed that you hadn't told me about it. Now, I won't mention this to anyone else, but I want you to feel secure in talking to me about anything. I guess you could say we are both in pretty similar situations."

The Captain gave Raven a sympathetic look.

She cleared her throat, unusually overcome, "I guess you could say that" the room around her was shaking.

She didn't want anybody knowing about her past. This was supposed to be her new start.

Subconsciously she looked out of the office window, her eyes resting on Garfield laughing away with the Sergeant. She snapped her eyes away the second she realised what she was doing.

Not fast enough for the captain not to notice, but he decided to ignore it.

"Your past is your past, and you're doing an impressive job here. You're not going anywhere okay?" The Captain reassured.

Raven breathed in deeply, "Yes sir"

"I'll let you know if I hear anything on the matter" He said dismissing her.

Understanding it was her cue to go, Raven stood up and left the room, back to the (not very manly) giggles of her partner and sergeant.

(Scene Break)

"No way!" Garfield gasped, his mouth in a wide "O" shape.

The Captain smiled, "I would be happy to accommodate your little Halloween party"

"Hold up" The Sergeant spoke up as he stood, "you really don't mind a bunch of drunk detectives and police being in your house?"

Captain Grayson shook his head, "Oh you won't be in my house. I'm not going to pretend that it's a secret that my father is rather rich. He may have purchased a tower in the city that he never got around to using. It used to be a sign for Gotham before Jump City broke away from it. Only the T stands now. It's fully furnished on the inside. A few of you could go by tomorrow and clean it up a bit if you want, but you can use it if you like"

Garfield punched the air in excitement "Yeah! Sure! Of course we want to use it!"

Raven had been observing the scene silently from her desk. She had to admit, the idea of a party didn't really excite her, but seeing Garfield so thrilled by the idea was enough to make her heart flutter.

"I'll go by tomorrow and check it out after work" Garfield stated and quickly added, "if that's cool?"

The Captain approved with a nod, handed a set of keys to Garfield and went back to his office.

Glancing up at the clock, Raven realised her shift was nearly over and began packing up her things.

Seeing her movement, Garfield rushed over, "Hey, Rae-"

An angry look from Raven made him add on a the "ven" part.

"Raven, you wanna help me decorate this tower for the party?" He asked, giving her big puppy eyes.

She knew she ought to say no, she wasn't the best at decorating or party planning, but a small voice in her head reminded her that this would be an out of work event. She wouldn't have to be so serious.

"Fine" she answered.

Garfield cheered.

"I would join ya' but I workin' late tomorrow, at least I have Halloween off though" Sergeant Stone chimed in.

Smiling, Garfield said, "We can handle it" looking to Raven, "This team is unstoppable"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8- Titans Tower

October 30th, 3:32pm

Raven blew a strand of her hair out of her face, her hands full.

She and Garfield had been in the grocery store party aisle for almost twenty minutes.

"Are you sure we need all of this?" Raven asked her partner, who was busy checking out the bottom shelf stocked with banners.

Garfield did not look up as he spoke, his face was intense with concentration as he had to do the difficult task of choosing between spider web shapes or skeletons, "Yeah, have you ever been to a party. What we have is not nearly enough!"

Concerned, Raven checked over their items; glow in the dark balloons, purple paper plates, disco lights, "do not enter" signs, "crime scene" tape (because apparently they didn't see enough of that at work) and about four hundred glow sticks.

It occurred to her that Raven did not know what she had signed up for.

"What do we still have to get?" She asked, her arms sore.

Garfield bounced up, having decided on both banners, his green eyes mocked her.

"Aw, is this too much for you to handle?" He teased, knowing that it would make her even more determined to let him shop longer.

"No" she snapped, "In fact I agree, we need way more. Good thing you're paying. How about I get a cart?" She could play him at his own game too. Having been his parter for quite some time now, she knew how to control his actions, not that she would a oust that power, sort of.

"Heh… Maybe we have enough" he concluded, reaching out and plucking some items from Raven's arms.

His fingers contacted her skin slightly and her body shivered in delight.

Raven ignored the feeling.

They made their way to the cash desk, receiving strange looks from other shoppers.

It's not every day you see two cops shopping for Halloween essentials.

The man at the cash desk tried to hide his amusement as he scanned the items.

"That'll be $26.79 please" he said.

Garfield cheeks burned as he dug into his pockets.

He produced two crumpled tens and two nickels. He laughed nervously, looking to Raven to save him.

Rolling her eyes, she paid the rest of the fee, smirking slightly.

"What were you smiling about?" Garfield asked as they left the store, carrying their party essentials.

"One- I wasn't smiling, and two- it was so typical of you" Raven said staring straight ahead.

Garfield chuckled as they reached his car.

"How would you know what's typical of me?" He asked, unlocking the door.

"The fact that you never have enough money? It doesn't take a genius Garfield." Raven said as the got into the car, dumping the shopping in the backseat. "Do you know where this tower is?" She asked as the car started.

Garfield nodded, "Raven you can see the T from every corner of the city, it won't be that hard to find"

(Scene Break)

As it turns out, the tower was harder to find that Garfield had initially thought.

Most of the roads that led to it were shut off, and if that wasn't enough it turned out that the tower was on its own island.

The detectives had made their way to the tower via a bridge that had been constructed fairly recently.

Raven was surprised at the size of the tower inside. She could tell that it had initially been bought to be an office of sorts, with signs and desks dotted here and there.

"Titans Tower" Garfield said from the other end of the room.

Raven whipped her head around, "What?"

"Titans Tower" he said again, pointing to a plaque on the wall, "It says here it was a telephone branch company, guess it didn't do too well huh?"

Raven joined him and read the plaque, "guess not"

She couldn't help but shake the feeling of familiarity she felt here.

"Better get started then" Garfield said, removing his dark green tie that he barely ever bothered to wear anyway.

He put his hands over one of the discarded desks and began to haul it backwards towards the sliding doors that led to a hallway.

Raven bit her lip as she watched his muscles contract beneath his shirt.

"Uh, a little help here?" He said panting like a puppy.

Snapping herself out of it, Raven joined her partner and stood opposite him. Pulling the desk backwards she said, "You have to guide me."

Garfield laughed a bit, "okay, I can't believe you trust me that much"

Raven frowned at his immaturity.

"Okay so there's a step behind you… Okay left a bit, left s bit more…. Wait no, left. Okay we can put it in that room there" Garfield gestured to the room closest to Raven's left… Unsurprisingly.

Putting her end down, Raven pressed a button on the wall opening up the door.

A blast of icy cold hit her as the she entered the room. Nobody had been in it for a long time.

There was a damp smell and a sad feeling hung in the air.

"Woah" Garfield said, "You feel that?"

Raven nodded, "should we just put all the desks in here?"

"Yeah, don't think this room ever gets used" Garfield answered looking wearily around. The walls were beige and some sort of painting of the outdoors was on the wall. It just looked out of place, "let's get the rest in so we can put up the party stuff"

(Scene Break)

"Awh Raven, are you too short to reach it?" Garfield mocked as he looked up at his parter trying to stick a skeleton to the wall.

Raven growled, "You can't say anything, you're basically the same height as me"

Jumping up from tying ribbon around orange and black balloons, Garfield objected, "I'm clearly taller" he said.

Raven momentary stopped what she was doing and approached him, "turn around" she said flatly.

"You're not taller than me" her partner insisted, doing as she asked.

Raven herself turned around and pressed her back into Garfield's and brought her hand from the top of her head backwards.

She heard Garfield's whoop of success when her hand hit the mid-section of his head.

He turned back to face his partner, "don't worry about it, I actually used to be pretty small when I was a teenager. It took me a long time to take a stretch."

Raven rolled her eyes and went back to her task, which she was still struggling with.

Almost silently, Garfield snuck up behind her and took the skeleton from her hands, his body dangerously close to hers. He felt her tense up underneath him but didn't mind it, his heart was hammering in his chest.

He hadn't meant for it to become such a sensual thing, he only tried to help because it was the right thing to do, he had completely forgot about his attraction to Raven for the moment.

Yet in those seconds his mind raced and his pulse sped up.

"There" He said tacking the skeleton to the wall, "all done"

Raven stepped away from him to hide the fact that her cheeks were burning, "I'm going to blow up some more balloons" she said heading out of the room.

Garfield ran his hand through his hair, boy did he know how to make things awkward.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9- Beast Boy

October 31st, 7:07pm

"Dude!" Victor said in amusement, greeting his friend, his fiancée by his side. "What happened?" He asked, taking in Garfield's green skin and hair.

"I may or may not have used the wrong body paint" Garfield answered, knowing fine well that he had indeed used the wrong body paint.

"What're ya' meant to be?" Victor said through his chuckles.

"I was supposed to be a smurf, but I guess I can't pull that off now huh?" He asked, "hey what are you meant to be?"

"I'm a cyborg" Victor said, "though it was obvious?"

Garfield studied his friend's costume, half of his body was painted silver, like a robot. He actually didn't look half bad.

"Now guess what I am" Victor's fiancée joked.

"Considering the wings and the yellow and black stripes, I'm going to say a bumblebee." Garfield observed.

"What happened to you?" Raven's voice said from the hallway making Garfield spin around.

He had to stop his mouth from falling open.

"What are you supposed to be?" She asked, putting her hand on her hip. Raven was wearing a skin tight black leotard that hugged her figure in all the right places. Her legs were bare and she wore a purple cape around her shoulders.

"I could ask you the same thing" Garfield said, trying to keep his voice sounding normal.

"This is all I could find in my apartment. It turns out that I spent so much time helping you decorate this place hat I forgot to buy a costume. I am a modern witch." Raven said, making her way over to them and greeting the first guests, "what are you meant to be?"

Garfield shrugged, "It didn't turn out the way I wanted."

"You look like… Like a Beast… Man?" Victor suggested.

Raven snorted, "You mean beast boy" she put emphasis on the boy.

"Hey!" Garfield objected, "why can't I be a man?!"

"Calm down Green Bean" Victor laughed.

"I can name one hundred reasons why you can't be a man" Raven said in a serious tone.

"Hey! That's not fair" he complained.

Raven shrugged, "you suit Beast Boy"

Frowning Garfield gave up, "fine. I'm a green beast thing."

"Boy" Raven reiterated, teasing her partner once more.

Sensing his friend's growing annoyance, Victor jumped in before Garfield could say something he would regret, "Hey, G, why don't you show me around?"

All of Garfield's irritation was gone in a second and he excitedly led them across what would soon be the dance floor.

"Here's the DJ Booth, especially for you" Garfield said showing off the turn tables (that hadn't been there when Raven helped set up) in the centre of the room.

She gave him a sly look, he saw it but shrugged. To him it looked good and Victor was s great DJ.

"And over here…" Garfield continued, moving to a long table at the long glass window of the tower, "is the buffet."

Victor scrunched up his face as he studied the plates, searching for the meat.

"Vegan of course" Garfield said proudly.

Victor turned his head slowly, his eyes burning into Garfield's, "You tellin' me all the food here is vegan?!"

"Luckily for you I made a separate buffet over there in the corner" Raven said, pointing a long pale finger in the direction of a dim area of the room, "Garfield wouldn't allow the meat anywhere near his food so that more people would eat the vegan buffet."

"Raven you're my hero!" Victor cried in delight.

"Yeah yeah, carnivores." Garfield rolled his eyes, "Anyway… Here" he said lifting cups from the table and handing them to Victor, his fiancée and Raven.

He then took a bottle of liquor and poured into their cups equally.

"Here's to the party, it's about to get wild!" Garfield toasted, they all raised their glasses and gulped the drink down straight.

Raven felt the buzz straight away, things were indeed going to get wild.

(Scene Break)

The party was in full swing.

Garfield had taken Raven around all the people she didn't know.

There was all sorts there. CIA, FBI, even someone from the Navy.

Raven was standing by the vegan buffet, which no one was touching, unsurprisingly, sipping another drink.

She had lost count of how many she had had.

Victor was playing surprisingly good music and he had a crowd of dancers around him.

She took another sip of her drink, and another, and another and…

Raven stared down at her cup, realising it was now empty.

"Hey!" Garfield waved as he approached her, "havin' some tofu?" He asked hopefully.

Raven shook her head, holding her cup out, "Just here for the drink" she said.

"You're missing out" Garfield said, picking up some tofu with his bare hands, "apparently I'm the only one eating this" He said with a full mouth.

"Obviously" Raven said, more than a little tipsy, "top me up?" She asked handing her cup to Garfield.

He did as she wished and she started drinking it immediately.

"No way!" Raven suddenly blurted out, "Is that the Captain?!" She asked excitedly. A little too excitedly for Raven, Garfield noted.

Not having the chance to even look to see if it was, Garfield was being dragged across the dance floor by the hand.

Apparently alcohol gave Raven incredible social skills.

Raven had to steady herself using Garfield's arm when she stopped centimetres from failing into the Captain.

He had come dressed in what look like a retro superhero costume. Starfire was at his side, dressed in what could only be described as a neon cheerleader.

"Captain, you came!" Garfield said taking a big swig of his drink, trying to catch up to Raven.

"I must say, I'm impressed with what you've done with the place" Captain Grayson said over the music.

"Are you the okay?" Starfire asked, looking worriedly at Raven.

"Yes, I am more than okay" Raven said and burst into an alarming amount of giggles.

Garfield joined in on the laughter. He didn't even think Raven was capable of giggling, of all things.

"We make a pretty good team" Garfield said in regards to the Captain's compliment.

"Yes, indeed you do. Great turn out too" The Captain observed looking around his father's tower, "Ah, I have to go say hello to Wally over there. Enjoy your evening!" He said noticing the man at the other end of the room and making his way over.

Garfield and Raven were left alone by the door.

(Scene Break)

Victor had left the DJ booth in search of some food, and to check up on his friend.

He had watched Garfield from afar getting more and more drunk by the minute.

"There you are!" He said with relief when he finally found Garfield and Raven in the hallway, "where you guys goin'?"

"Back to the party, we were getting these" Raven said holding up two wine bottles.

"Turns out the Captain's dad has a taste for fine wines" Garfield said clearly drunk.

Victor frowned, "Hey, how 'bout I put these back where you found 'em, and you two go get some air? I think you need it"

Raven wanted to object but Garfield was already leading her away for Victor and to the steps that led to the roof.

Garfield stood beneath Raven, ready to catch her if she fell as she made her way to the roof.

Thankfully she didn't.

Garfield grinned as he hauled himself through the hatch at onto the rooftop.

His head was spinning and his eyeballs were warm, boy did he feel good.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10- Roof Top Confessions

9:47pm

The cool wind whipped Raven' burning cheeks as she looked at the glowing city.

Everything was so beautiful from where she stood, it felt like there could be no evil in the world.

But of course there always was.

"It's really somethin', huh?" Garfield said from her side as he too stared at the dancing lights of the city.

Raven nodded, "how long have you lived here?" She asked.

Garfield's ears pricked up, "Ha, if I knew all it would take to get a good conversation out of you was some beer I would'a thrown a party a long time ago!" He joked.

Raven swayed drunkenly and planked her bottom down on the ledge, not responding to Garfield's comment.

"Uh..." Garfield pondered as he tried to the math in his cloudy head, "I moved here when I was about fourteen, so yeah, I've been here for a while. How about you, how did you end up here" Garfield seized his chance to find out more about this girl who had been impossible for him to work out.

Raven tucked tried to smooth back the stray hairs that were blowing into her face from the delicate breeze, "I was made to come here. It wasn't really my choice."

"What happened? Did you punch somebody? 'Cause when I first met you I thought you'd put me through a wall eventually" Garfield laughed, Raven's face remained straight.

"My father's a monster. He's a demon." She said quietly.

His laughter halted and Garfield leaned over to look at Raven's face. Her usual expressionless face was now pained.

"What do you mean?"

Raven inhaled deeply. If she were sober she would not even consider sharing what she was about to share with anyone that she didn't have to.

But she needed to tell someone, and Garfield seemed to be the most trustworthy person in the world to her drunken mind.

"My mom was a good woman, she fell pregnant when she was young, before my dad started going off the rails. She ran away when he did, he didn't know she was pregnant. So she raised me in a quiet little town. Everything was great, I went to a good school, had nice friends… And then my world sort of came crashing down. It was almost as if everything was perfect one day, and the next I'm in the back of a van, bound and blindfolded." Raven paused, the memory still so vivid, she avoided looking at Garfield, "I feared the worst. When the van eventually stopped I was dragged out and taken into a warehouse, that's the first time I met him, my father. He had become a drug lord and had quite the reputation, when he found out about me he couldn't wait to recruit me into his little drug ring. Of course at the time I was a teenager, and I had no idea where I was or what would happen to me if I refused. My father was delighted, told me what he wanted me to do and sent me back home like he hadn't just kidnapped me. I'd started off the day as Raven Roth, obedient child, and came home as Trigon's daughter."

"What did he make you do?" Garfield asked, feeling that he had possibly been quiet for too long.

"It started off with selling some drugs to high school kids, but the clients got older and older… And some wanted more than just the stuff. The first guy that tried something with me was enough, I went straight to the police and became their mole. I helped them put away almost all of my father's accomplices, the ones that I knew anyway. He was furious with me, broke into my house in the middle of the night and called me a blood traitor, swore his vengeance and promised I would be the cause of ending my world as I know it. I joined the police force, for my own protection and my mother's. Unfortunately, back at my old precinct Trigon resurfaced and I was too much of a risk to keep around. I would have been able to stay if it wasn't for… I've said too much already"

Garfield could have listened to her talk all night, but he respected her privacy. He prayed that he would remember all of this in the morning, "That's horrible, I'm so sorry"

Raven put her arm around Garfield's bicep and leaned her head against his shoulder, "Don't be" she said.

He automatically tensed up, her head was warm and her skin was soft. She felt perfect.

"Why?"

"Because I got to come here. This city is possibly the best thing that has ever happened to me, I'm just too stubborn to admit it. It let me meet some of the nicest people" Raven said, comfortable on Garfield's shoulder.

"Present company included?" He joined, trying to break the strange atmosphere.

She looks directly into his eyes from her position, "I'm far too drunk to talk about that right now" she said and moved herself up into a sitting position once more.

Raven reached out her hand and rubbed some of the green paint off of Garfield's face, "I like you in green" She said, distracted by the smoothness of his skin. She let her fingers linger on his face, "Terra didn't deserve you"

Garfield's eye widened, "you didn't even know her" he pointed out, not wanting to defend her but he automatically did, after everything she had put him through he still believed there was good in her.

Raven shrugged, "I didn't have to. In the short time I've known you, I've witnessed all the hurt and the pain that Terra had inflicted on you. I see even in your laughter, the tiny part of you that's screaming out for her. You want her to explain, you need her to tell you that it was all an act to trick them, that she actually loved you, and she only did what she did to protect you. That she had perhaps started out with bad intentions but grew to love you and would out you first no matter what. You thought you had a future with him, that he was the first person who really meant something to you. You thought you had finally found the one…"

Garfield frowned, "Him?" He asked, making sure he had heard the last part correctly.

Raven closed her eyes, "I know how it feels Garfield. I thought I was in love"

"Me too" Garfield said softly, "Do you think the pain will ever go away?"

"No" Raven said candidly, "But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy yourself. From my personal experience those who have been hurt the most have the warmest hearts. Those who cry more often smile brighter. Maybe it's because we treasure every second of happiness or perhaps we are just trying to push away all the bad thoughts by focussing so much on the good times. Either way, I like you the way you are Garfield, bruises and all"

Placing his hand over her wrist Garfield made a swift decision.

Quickly he pulled Raven in towards him, their lips brushing softly at first but growing hungrier by the second. Raven ran her hands through Garfield's hair as he wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her closer into him.

When they stopped to breathe, Garfield saw that Raven was smiling- really smiling.

"You too" He whispered huskily, sending shivers all over Raven.

She moved up to his ear and whispered into it.

Garfield's eyes lit up, "Sure thing Raven. I gotta get my jacket first though" he replied, hopping off of the ledge and taking her by the hand.

In his state he couldn't process what he had done, or what he was going to do, but boy was he going to regret it in the morning.

(Authors Note) 10 Chapters already?! I had some technical difficulty this week, aka my word account deleted these two chapters and I couldn't recover them so I had to do the party chapters from scratch again. But anyway it is done and I hope you are all enjoying my story so far, thanks to all who have read and reviewed this story, you guys are great. Anyway the next chapter will be coming very soon, happy reading!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11- The Morning After

November 1st, 8:19am

Raven snuggled in closer to her pillow, the sunlight streaming in through the window making her screw her face up.

Her pillow was warm and soft and snoring contently.

Snoring?

Raven forced her eyes open against her body's wishes. Her head whirled and her stomach flipped backwards and forwards inside.

Garfield was in bed beside her, facing away from her. His skin was still splotched with green patches from the night before.

The night before, Raven thought with dread.

Garfield was most definitely shirtless but she couldn't see past his waist for the blanket, and she herself was stripped down to her underwear. Her eyes lingered a little longer on his toned torso.

Pulling her eyes away, Raven sat herself up and buried her head in her purple duvet.

This was not good.

Her memories of the night before were very hazy. She recalled drinking and speaking, the roof and then nothing.

The body beside her turned and came to.

Garfield moaned and grumbled, clasping his head with his hand. He reached out to his left, feeling for his bedside table and frowned when his hand appeared to go right through it. Opening his eyes he realised that his table was gone, and his walls were a different colour as were his bedsheets.

He turned around slowly, dreading who he'd see beside him.

His eyes met an angry Raven, and he scrambled up, embarrassed.

"Uh…" He started, trying to say something to break the awkwardness.

"Get out" Raven said, "just get out" she repeated, pulling the covers up over her half naked torso.

Garfield did not need to be told again. He snatched his shirt up from the ground and shoved his bottoms on.

"Look Rae- Raven- I'm really sorry about this. We were drunk and-" He said as he dressed.

"This never happened" She snapped, staring him down with her violet eyes, "You can never tell anyone about this, okay? I think it's in your best interest to forget this ever happened"

"But should we not talk-"

"No, we definitely should not talk about it" Raven said again, not breaking eye contact.

Garfield shook his head angrily, "Fine. I'll see you at work" he said and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

Raven breathed heavily and fell back down into her bed, wanting to scream out but doing nothing but humming her familiar mantra, clearing her head and pushing her feelings that had unfortunately surfaced the night before to the back of her head.

(Scene Break)

Garfield had no idea where he was, the neighbourhood was unfamiliar to him, but the walk was needed for him to think.

The cold morning air nipped his skin as he walk further and further away from Raven.

How could she have shunned him like that?

Had she forgotten everything they had spoken about last night?

It occurred to Garfield that maybe Raven did not have the clear recollection after drinking excess amounts of alcohol that he did.

But she still had those feelings before she had started drinking, right?

He pulled his jacket up closer to keep the heat in.

He should go back, confront her, be honest about his feelings. But she was his partner, his work colleague and his friend. Maybe she really didn't want anything more, but he did.

Garfield knew that she was scared, scared of her father, her job and herself.

But he would handle it all for her. They could face it together could they not?

Apparently not.

Unless he asked her.

He was being reckless, he knew that, but he had to do this.

Turning on his heel he turned back towards Raven's apartment, ignoring all logic in his head.

(Scene Break)

Raven's door rattled loudly making her jump.

"Who's there?" She called out, guessing it was probably Garfield.

There was no answer but the door kept on rattling.

Raven reached into her desk drawer and pulled out her gun and stood by the door, "Who's there?"

Still no answer.

"This isn't funny" she said again, not letting the fear enter her voice.

The rattling stopped.

She could feel the heart hammering in her chest like a drum in the silence.

Then the intruder started kicking.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Bang! the door flew open and Raven jumped in front of the intruder, her gun held out, "Freeze!" She shouted, her eyes widening when she recognised him.

"Or what?" He laughed, "you'll shoot?" He walked closer to the gun, "go ahead" he growled.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, almost shaking.

"Your father is worried about you, he wanted me to check up on you"

"How did you find me?"

"Oh you don't remember? You called me last night, asking me why I did what I did. You were so clearly drunk Raven. Yet, I found myself making my way to this god awful city. I came all this way to see you. I must say you are looking good." His eyes swept over Raven and she felt suddenly self conscious, "I had to wait until your boy toy left"

Raven's cheeks reddened, "we're the same age"

"Really? He does have such a baby face don't you think? Can you stop pointing that thing at me Raven?" He gestured to the gun, "I'm unarmed"

Raven lowered her gun warily, but kept a firm hand on it, "You should go" she suggested to the imposter, "I mean it, Malchior" she warned.

"Or what?" Malchior challenged, "you'll set your puppy on me?"

"If I were you, I'd do what she says" Garfield said from behind him, his hand over the pocket where his gun was concealed.

Malchior turned casually, completely unthreatened by the detective's presence, "seems like your puppy has a bite" he snarled.

Raven stared at the scene before her, baffled by her situation. She didn't need either of the two at this exact moment in time.

"I've got this Garfield" Raven stated.

"Yeah pretty boy, the girl can handle herself" Malchior chimed in.

"As for you." She continued, "I want you to go."

Malchior shrugged, "You know I'll just come back. I really can't keep my hands off you Raven."

That comment made Garfield tense up so much that his veins in his biceps threatened to pop.

"Go!" Raven repeated, using all her strength to not lunge and punch the intruder.

Putting his hands up in defeat, Malchior walked slowly out of the apartment, bumping his shoulder hard against Garfield's on his way out, "I'll see you tomorrow!" He called back as he left, laughing to himself as he went.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12- Sweet Sweet Goodbye

November 1st, 10:03am

"I said I have it sorted" Raven said for what felt like the seventieth time.

Garfield kept his arms crossed and his face serious, "No Raven, you don't have it sorted. Who was that guy?" He repeated.

Raven crossed the room again and again, her mind racing, still finding it hard to process the events of the past twelve hours.

They had found her and she was unsafe once again.

She had let him into her own home, how stupid was she?

She hadn't even notice Garfield stand up.

He put his hands over her shoulders and guided her to the sofa, making her sit down.

"You need to tell me what that guy wanted Raven. I need to know because I can help you, you know that. Forget last night okay. It was clearly a mistake so can we just be adults about this?" Garfield said.

Raven put her head in her hands, "Fine" she gave in, "he's my old partner"

Frowning, Garfield remarked, "Him?! Really? I'm guessing he's not on the force anymore?"

Raven shook her head, "he's the reason I had to move away. He works for my father, and now he knows where I live." She stood up again, "I'm going to have to move again. I'll have to get another job, another apartment- I'll need to start everything again. Why didn't I just arrest him on the spot?! I'm so use-"

Garfield grabbed her arm, "You are not useless Raven. I get it, I would've done the same had it been Terra standing in front of me." He said locking eyes with her.

They both breathed heavily, angry at the other respectively.

"You know you can't stay here?" Garfield said, letting go of her and looking around her apartment.

Raven stayed quiet.

"You were really going to just sit tight and hope that he doesn't come back again?" Garfield asked surprised.

"I have nowhere else to go" Raven pointed out.

"Sure you do!" Garfield said, "The precinct offers protective housing. Or… Well if you wanted to… You see I have a spare room… and it's not very big but-"

Raven lifted her head, grateful for her partner's kindness after she had been so mean to him yet again, "I wouldn't mind spending a few nights away from here. If it's okay with you"

"'Course!" He said happy that she had accepted his offer without hesitation. "The sooner you get out of this place the better"

(Scene Break)

"You sure you have everything?" Garfield asked as he stared at Raven's small tote bag.

Nodding, Raven assured him, "I travel lightly."

"Okay, well I'll get you in the car then, let you double check you have everything" Garfield said, sensing Raven needed a moment alone.

She nodded gratefully as her partner left her small apartment.

Raven looked around herself once more at the small apartment that had been her home for such a short time. Such a short time and yet she had felt more at home than ever.

She had grown used to the sound of the street cat meowing at night, and knew exactly where to sit so the sun would hit her face at noon, she loved sitting by the window ledge and listening to the cars going by on the streets as she relaxed with a good book. She loved walking down her street to the parking lot knowing she was going to work.

She loved the life she had made here, and now it was being threatened.

With one final look at her ruffled bedsheets were she and Garfield had spent the night, her heart speeding up at the hazy memory, she left her apartment, the door clicking behind her.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13- Kidnap

November 1st, 7:34pm

"Heh, hope you're okay with vegetarian pasta. I don't usually have company" Garfield said, setting a plate down in front of Raven.

She was seated at a small dining table in Garfield's kitchen. It was only big enough to sit two people.

Raven surprisingly liked Garfield's apartment. It was tidier than she had expected, and larger. She hadn't seen his bedroom yet though, and she wasn't going to as long as Garfield could prevent it as he had thrown all his mess into his room.

"Thanks" Raven said looking down at her plate. It smelled good.

Garfield took his seat across from Raven, digging in to his food.

After a few mouthfuls, Raven was full. She hand freaky developed an appetite. Whenever she thought about Malchior her stomach twisted painfully.

Looking up and seeing his friend's pain, Garfield put down his fork.

"Do you wanna maybe talk about it?" Garfield suggested.

"There's not much to tell" Raven said to the table.

"He broke your heart, that's not nothing, Raven" Garfield pointed out.

Raven opened her mouth to speak but was rudely cut off by Garfield's cell phone ringing.

Glancing at it, Garfield frowned, "it's the Captain"

Raven nodded telling him to take the call and he did.

"Hey! Captain, what's up?"

(Scene Break)

"Is detective Roth in the same room as you right now?" Captain Grayson asked, folding the pile of papers back on forth on his desk.

"Yeah" Garfield answered from the other end of the line.

"How is she?" He asked as he scanned the information before him again and again.

"Good, I think" Was his reply.

"Leave the room just now." The Captain requested.

"What?" Garfield asked confused.

"Please, I need to speak to you in private, I suggest you act like I'm asking you to get something from the other room"

Garfield sighed, "I'll see if I can find it Captain"

The Captain smiled softly as he heard the detective shuffle out of the room. He heard a satisfying click on the other end of a door closing.

"I'm guessin' this is serious, huh?" Garfield asked.

"Unfortunately" Captain Grayson said staring at the papers, a clear picture of his nemesis on the paper. The picture was blurry and had been taken by a surveillance team. Although it was grainy, it was all too clear to the Captain.

Slade Wilson was definitely back, and his one of his own detectives was somehow involved with him.

"I'm not completely convinced that we can trust Detective Roth." The Captain said candidly.

"Why?"

"I have some documents before me that could point towards a double cross situation. I have discussed her past with her and assured her she will be safe here, and I plan to stick to my word, but I need proof that she is nothing to double cross me."

"She's not like that" Garfield said defensively.

The captain could make out Garfield's tiredness from the opposite side of the phone.

"I don't want to believe it, but I need you to make sure of it. She trusts you Garfield."

"You think she trusts me?" Garfield asked surprised.

"I don't think, I know. Unfortunately I need you to infiltrate that trust. Find out what she knows about Slade Wilson, and I want to know more about this Malchior character also. I expect a full report in the next week."

Garfield sighed, "Will do Captain."

And the call ended with a click.

(Scene Break)

She wasn't prying, not at all. At least that's what she told herself. Raven had just happened to cross the hallway to go to the bathroom and overhear the conversation.

From what she could hear on Garfield's side she guessed that the Captain had lost all faith in her.

She didn't blame him.

She was surprised that Garfield still trusted her.

She was even more surprised that she trusted him.

She was still leaning against the door when Garfield opened it, pushing the heavy door into her face.

She groaned as the door collided with her nose.

"Raven! I'm so sorry! Is it bleedin'? Oh crap I'm really sorry!" Garfield said guiltily.

Holding the bridge of her nose, her eyes watery, Raven spoke, "I'm fine, it was my fault. I've suffered worse than a bump on the nose."

"Why were you leaning against the door anyway?" Garfield asked as he made his way to the kitchen and ran a paper towel under the faucet.

He handed the wet towel to Raven who took it gratefully and pressed it against her nose, the cold instantly killing the pain off.

She simply looked at Garfield, her silence telling him everything he needed to know.

"You were spying!" Garfield said in a childish tone, mocking his friend.

"Call it what you will, to me I was being a detective." Raven attempted to defend herself.

"Okay Rae, whatever you say." Garfield chuckled.

"So what did the Captain want?" Raven enquired.

Garfield didn't answer her question, "C'mon" he said.

"What? Where? I asked you a-" Raven started.

"Just come on" Garfield said, taking Raven by the wrist and walking her out of his apartment and to his car.

"What you're going to kidnap me now?" Raven only half joked.

"I kind of already have" Garfield smirked getting into the car.

Raven did the same.

Turning the key in the ignition, Garfield pulled out of his space and drove out into the night.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14- The Bathroom

November 1st, 10:46pm

The boy was full of surprises, Raven couldn't deny it.

Garfield had driven them through the city and out to the tower where the party had been held the night before.

The giant 'T' now abandoned once again.

They were lying in the hood of Garfield's car beside the water, staring at the clear night sky.

Raven had one of Garfield's windbreakers on, and she wouldn't admit it, but the smell of him on her comforted her.

Their breath danced in the air, visible because of the cold.

Garfield swallowed hard, he knew he had to end this peace. He knew that he had to do what the Captain had asked of him.

Looking to his left, Garfield watched the girl he was slowly falling for.

Raven looked so tired, yet so alive. Her eyes were big, taking in the beauty of the sky above her, her mouth was set in a thin line and her lips were chapped. Her hair was limp and she had dark bags under her eyes. She still looked beautiful.

"Hey, Raven" Garfield started.

"Hmm?" Was all Raven said.

"Did you love him? Malchior?"

He saw the pain flash in her eyes and Garfield winced. He had ruined her mood, he knew it.

"Why do you ask?" She asked, turning to face him.

"Sometimes I wonder if I really loved Terra, or if I was only manipulated into thinking that. Sometimes I wonder if her telling me that she loved me made me believe that I felt the same, because thinking back, I don't actually think I was in love. It didn't feel like love." He said truthfully. 'But this feels like love' was what he wanted to say, but he couldn't.

Raven took a moment before answering, Garfield could see she was in deep thought.

"The thing about Malchior is, he was the first person to ever show any real interest in me, and I do believe that had a huge influence on how I felt toward him. It was like I learned to love him, I forced myself in a way because I didn't think anyone would ever show the same interest in me again. It's ridiculous, I know, but I was so blinded by my want to appreciated that I made myself love him, and I have regretted it everyday of my life." Raven closed her eyes, exhausted.

"Did you ever wonder if he was working against you?" Garfield pressed a little more.

"I didn't want to think of that, but there were times when I doubted him. He had a temper, a temper that resembled my father so much. Even some of the things he said I could've sworn I had heard my father say, but I shrugged it off and put it down to coincidence. I was so naïve" Raven looked back up to the sky, "We should go back, we have work tomorrow."

"Actually, the Captain thinks it would be best-"

"I'm going to work Garfield, I need to keep busy or I'm going to lose my mind." Raven said, rolling off of the car and getting into the passenger seat.

Garfield sighed, at least he was getting somewhere.

(Scene Break)

November 2nd 2pm

The phone rang again, Raven ignored it. He was just trying to mess with her, and she was just trying to work.

"Are you gonna answer that Rae?" Garfield asked, annoyed at the constant ringing of his colleague's work phone.

"No" she said and continued filling out her never-ending paperwork.

"Can you at least put it through to answering machine?" The Sergeant called from the other side of the bullpen. The constant ringing had brought on a migrane for him, "Please Rae just answer it!"

Raven blew out a shallow breath, "fine"

She picked up the phone, hoping that it wasn't the voice from earlier, of which she had instantly hung up on.

"Detective Roth" She answered.

"Very formal Raven, I like it" Malchior said from the opposite end of the line.

"What do you want?" She said trying to keep her cool but her tone was bitter, making Garfield look up and watch her interaction. He knew by the look on her face exactly who had been constantly phoning.

Why hadn't he thought it was him?

Of course it was him, who else would it be?

The Sergeant was good with computers, so Garfield called him over and asked him to bug Raven's phone so that they could track Malchior.

"You know what I want Raven. I know you want it too."

Raven was ready to hang up but Victor shook his head viciously, mouthing "keep him on the phone for as long as possible"

Raven gritted her teeth but done what was asked of her by her superior.

"You are disgusting" Raven remarked.

"Do you miss the dragon Raven?" Malchior asked.

The dragon.

No, she did not miss the dragon.

"You know that I hated the dragon." Raven cringed.

Garfield frowned at her, making a mental note to enquired as to what the dragon is later.

"Oh Raven, I thought I had made you love it too"

"So sorry to disappoint" Raven said shortly.

"Why don't we meet up? Have a chat like old times? You could pay your father a visit. I know he's missing you so very much. And he has some new friends he would love you to meet."

The Captain rushed out of his office before Raven could answer. He nodded at her, "arrange to meet up" he whispered. It quickly occurred to Raven that the Captain had been listening to her conversation.

She felt her stomach plummet, she didn't want to meet up with the worst mistake of her life. But she couldn't disobey her Captain.

"Just to talk?" She asked

"My, my, Raven, are you coming around?" Malchior teased.

"Give me a time and a place and I might turn up."

"Ooh being difficult are we? See, I've missed this! Let me think, where can we meet, oh I know!" He told Raven an address of which she guessed was where he was staying, "meet me tomorrow night, 6pm, come alone, I don't want this turning into threesome, unless you have a hot girlfriend, then bring her."

And he hung up.

Raven slammed the phone down, got up and stormed to the bathroom.

The Sergeant, Garfield and The Captain all exchanged glances.

Captain Grayson leaned over her desk to see what she had scribbled down on a piece of paper while on the phone.

He picked it up, content with her work, "The meet up is happening."

"Do you not think it's a bad idea?" Victor asked doubting his Captain.

"It will work Serg, trust me" The Captain assured.

"It better" Garfield said, "because you have no idea how hard it's gonna' be for her" he got up and walked the same path that Raven had moments ago.

"I hope you're right about this Captain." Victor said, watching his friend, because this is hurting him too.

(Scene Break)

Raven hated crying, but Malchior always broke her. Thankfully, there was nobody in the bathroom to see her embarrassing breakdown.

Clutching the sink, she stared at herself in the mirror.

"You're better than this" She said to her reflection, "You're better than him."

Her own words helped her calm down a little.

There was a knocking at the door, "Hey, Rae, are you okay?"

Raven rolled her eyes, "yeah, I'll get by" she answered.

Garfield was unconvinced, "I'm gonna' come in." He said pushing Lord the door and joining Raven in the ladies bathroom.

With one look at her he shook his head, "You're clearly not okay" he pointed out taking in her wet cheeks and bloodshot eyes.

"I'm fine." Raven said angrily, "Completely fine." She turned to grab some paper towels and dry her eyes once again.

While she had her back to him Garfield said, "I think The Captain was out of order. He shouldn't make you do something you are uncomfortable with."

"Well maybe you're right, but he doesn't trust me, so maybe after this he will." Raven sighed.

"Even if it hurts you huh?"

"Why do you care anyway, Logan? Just stop caring what happens to me okay? This is my mess." Raven turned back to him and went to walk out of the door when Garfield grabbed her shoulders.

"Listen to me, I do care about you. And I know that's the last thing you want to hear right now but yeah. You're my friend, and my partner and a really good person. So stop acting like your feelings don't matter, because they do" He said softly.

In her emotional state, this statement brought her to tears, but this time happy tears. In a moment of weakness she fell into Garfield's arms, much to his surprise.

He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tight.

Raven felt like all the stress and anger she was feeling was being squeezed out of her, and it felt good.

She let herself be wrapped up by his and squished against his firm chest.

He rested his chin on the top of her head and just held her.

"If you tell anyone about this I'll kill you" Raven warned, still pressed against him.

"Everything is gonna' be okay Rae, I'm gonna' be right there when you meet the bastard and if he tries anything I will make him suffer. He can't get to you anymore, it's over Raven. You're safe with me." Garfield soothed as her crying ceased.

Raven closed her eyes, stopping herself from crying anymore. Garfield was being so nice to her and she was being so mean to him. He was possibly the greatest thing that had ever happened to her, and of course, Malchior would ensure that she can't have her happiness.

And hurt her more to know this, because she was sure she was falling in love.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15- Old Faces

November 3rd, 5:56pm

"Testing, testing, Raven can you hear me okay?" The Sergeant said into his speaker in the squat house. He was surrounded by monitors and he could see exactly what Raven was seeing through the camera concealed in a necklace.

"Loud and clear" she said. She looked around herself once again, checking that none of her colleagues could be seen. She breathed out a long breath, gripping her steering wheel with both hands.

"Don't worry, everything is going to be fine." The Captain assured her through the device hidden in her ear.

"If he finds out that I'm wearing a wire he'll try and kill me."

"Just act normal, he won't suspect a thing"

Raven adjusted her position, The Captain was becoming more and more intense as time went on whenever Slade Wilson was concerned. It was almost as if it was an obsession.

"Hey Rae, it's me, coming to you live from my position in the van just ten feet from your position, here's the latest news tonight, I'm bored." Garfield came onto the line.

Raven smiled gratefully, his voice easing her worries.

"You'll do great in there. I bet you will basically get all the information we need in five minutes."

"Thanks Logan" Raven said, finally summoning up the courage to leave the car. She did so and made her way up the path to the run down townhouse where Malchior had asked her to meet him.

Holding her breath, she knocked on the door lightly.

Malchior seemed to be standing directly behind the door, and opened it before Raven had even finished knocking.

"You came" Malchior observed with his cold eyes.

"I did" Raven said stiffly.

He grinned wickedly, "Come in, please" He moved to the side to let her step in.

The house was run down on the inside, with only a sofa visible in the empty living room.

"Take a seat" Malchior insisted, "Can I get you something?"

The last thing Raven wanted to do was to leave herself defenceless, and being seated was one way to ensure that, but she couldn't be suspicious in any way, so she sat.

"No, I'm okay. I can't stay long." She said.

"I'm so glad you came Raven, give us a chance to catch up" Malchior said, sliding down into the couch beside her.

He was close, very close.

He ran his hand up her thigh as he stared into her eyes, "I have missed you ever so much, Raven." He said leaning into her.

"That's not why I'm here" Raven said, trying to push him back.

"Oh come now Raven, for old times sake?" He said as he began caressing her neck in a not so gentle way.

"No!" Raven pushed him back full force, "I came here to talk with you as an acquaintance, not as that"

Malchior ran his hand through his silver hair, "You know, I wouldn't have taken no for an answer if your father weren't here."

Raven's mouth fell open, and before she could even ask "what?" Two hands fell on her shoulders. They were ice cold and rough as stone.

"Hello, daughter. It has been a while."

(Scene Break)

There was nothing but static in Garfield's earpiece as he tried rapidly to get a signal again.

He had lost contact with Raven thirty seconds ago and had alerted his colleagues to the current situation. He had hoped that it was only him that had lost the signal and that the rest of the team still had all eyes and ears on the operation.

"We've lost her too, G" The Sergeant said through the walkie-talkie, sounding worried.

That was all it took for Garfield to make a swift decision.

"I'm goin' in!" He announced, sliding open the van doors and hopping out.

"No you're not!" The Captain warned, "You will remain in your current position until we know exactly what's happening, it could just be a technical fault."

Garfield felt sick, "I promised her we would have her back" he pleaded.

"And we do, however, we must be sure of the situation before we go barging in there. You know the protocol for these things Detective Logan, keep it professional please." The Captain's final "please" crackled through the communicator device.

Garfield slumped his shoulders, "fine" he huffed, climbing back into the van. "Two minutes, then we all have to go in, weapons and all" He reminded his superior. Garfield folded his arms and watched the digital clock on the wall of the van, waiting in anticipation for two minutes to go by.

Back in the squat house, Captain Grayson pinched the bridge of his nose, this was possibly the worst case scenario, he knew that it was likely that she was in trouble, but he had to now if Slade Wilson had anything to do with his detective.

Perhaps he was being too dramatic, perhaps this old face from Raven's past was simply just seeking to reconnect with her? He was being ridiculous with all this Slade business.

Or not.

As he finished his train of thought, Captain Grayson spied and all too familiar figure making its way to the house of which Raven was in.

Captain Grayson turned to the Sergeant, a smug look on his face, "Now we move in! Team Go!"

(Scene Break)

Raven tried her best to conceal her trembling hands by clasping them tightly together.

This was definitely the worst case scenario.

Where was her team?

Garfield had promised that if there was any trouble he'd be right there.

Why did she have such faith in him?

Malchior crossed the room while Raven wasn't watching and turned the small dial on the wall that, unknown to Raven, was blocking any frequency waves and turning any type of communication into static. He knew for sure that she was wearing a wire, and he didn't want Trigon's whereabouts to be revealed to the police.

"Don't look so scared child, my presence should relax you. Surely you must have been worried about your father after you abandoned me?" Trigon said, walking around the sofa where Raven sat, and sitting himself down on the arm rest of the chair opposite, staring right into his daughter's eyes, "I am not usually one to give second chances, but you are my flesh and blood, and for you I will grant mercy." He said deeply, patiently waiting for his daughter's acceptance.

He was only met by an emotionless face.

Trigon glances at Malchior, "have you stunned my daughter into silence, Dragon?" He joked, Malchior only shrugged.

"Give me some time with her, I'll get her talking" Malchior grinned, his words droning in his annoyingly pretentious accent.

The voice that once soothed Raven when she was down.

The voice that continually put Raven down.

She squeezed her eyes closed, still silent, this wasn't happening, surely this wasn't happening!

A soft wrap at the door tore her away from her thoughts.

They're here! She thought with glee, it took them long enough but still, they had come to help her. They had kept their word.

Eyeing Trigon suspiciously, Malchior left the room to go to the door.

Raven waited in anticipation to hear her friends' voices.

To hear the authority of The Captain,the wittiness of The Sergeant, and the joy in Garfield's voice of busting a criminal.

Yet she heard none of this.

Instead, the guest entered silently, the house suddenly becoming chillier with their presence.

Raven knew exactly who it was as soon as she laid eyes on him.

Slade Wilson.

"So glad you could make it." Trigon remarked, greeting him with a nod.

Slade's eyes scanned the room before resting on Raven, "I have waited some time for this moment, to meet the blood of the great Trigon. It is an honour." He said in a creepy voice.

Raven didn't know what to do, here she was in a room with three of Gotham's most notorious criminals, without her gun, and having been abandoned by her team.

She had combat training, and could probably take them on, but she had more than a slight incline that they didn't want to kill her.

They wanted something more from her, and fighting them would only make her treatment worse.

As she was mulling her options over in her head the door burst open and Raven leaped out of seat, standing in a fight stance, having decided she would rather go down fighting.

Much to her relief, it wasn't another one of her father's friends that came in, in fact it was her friends.

The Captain's eyes were blazing with fury, his sights set on Slade, who remained still and seemed unfazed by the force's barging in.

Victor was close behind him, his gun outstretched, covering his Captain.

Garfield was ushering the squat team in, bringing up their rear.

He looked around hurriedly for Raven.

When his eyes locked with hers, he sighed with relief.

Time seemed to stand still as they stared at one another from opposite sides of the room.

The worst thoughts had run through Garfield's head, he had feared walking in and seeing her lifeless body on the floor.

He had imagined the gaping hold it would leave in his heart.

And looking at her healthy, although pale, face he couldn't have felt more relief.

They gave each other a nod that said, "I've got your back" and then turned to their Captain, awaiting their orders.

Raven kept her smile hidden, and breathed in a deep sigh of relief.

"Slade Wilson" Captain Grayson, "You're under arrest"


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16- A Cold Winter's Night

November 3rd, 6:37pm

Slade's face stayed as still as stone after the Captain had placed him under arrest.

"For what?" He asked, in a voice lower than anything Garfield had ever heard.

"You are wanted for many crimes throughout Gotham" Captain Grayson stated.

"Ah, but you need proof to make a valid arrest do you not? I am merely a suspect at the moment, therefore you cannot arrest me. The most you can do is take me for questioning, but unfortunately I have other business to attend to." Slade replied slowly, carefully fighting his argument in a pace that was almost robotic.

Captain Grayson's mouth twitched slightly. He knew he was right. For all the crimes he was accused of, not one single witness would name him for they feared him too much. He had done unspeakable things that every soul in Gotham knew Slade was responsible for, yet not one person would testify. At the end of the day, The Captain had no case, nothing but the truth without proof.

"I will have my lawyer contact you" Slade said, crossing the room and walking right up to Captain Grayson, "it has been a pleasure seeing you again, Dick" he remarked and then walked past all of the squat team and Garfield, who stood open mouthed at the scene before him.

Slade didn't even bother to say goodbye to Trigon or Malchior and just left silently.

The attention in the room turned to Trigon.

"I regret to inform you, Captain, that I too have the same argument as my friend" Trigon stated.

Garfield couldn't help but stare at Raven's father. He was a huge, bulking man, with neck length black hair and dark eyes. He had an abnormally long forehead, and long broad shoulders. He seemed almost demonic, he guessed that's why Raven saw him that way.

"Actually you don't, there is one person in this room who can testify against all your crimes" The Captain said, thankful he could make at least one arrest tonight.

The room suddenly felt tighter as Trigon's eyes fell on his daughter's short frame.

"Really?" Trigon asked sarcastically.

"She has already told me some of the things you have done, and I am sure that there are plenty more that she hasn't even had the chance to mention" Captain Grayson said.

"Really?" Trigon repeated, his face set in a pose of annoyance, "has my daughter been fooling you with her lies?"

The room had grown even more tense.

Garfield scratched the back of his neck as he watched Raven's face show the slightest signs of fear.

What was the Captain doing? Raven's father was a terrible man, and he was making her a target for his hate.

"She will testify" The Captain declared, although Raven had never agreed to such a thing.

Before Raven could speak for herself, Malchior pulled out a weapon that resembled both a gun and a knife and held it to Raven's temple, pulling her wrists in with his free hand and pulling her body into his.

Every detective and Swat member trained their guns on Malchior.

"Drop your weapon!" Victor shouted.

"If any of you shoot I will pull this trigger, and we will both go down together!" Malchior shouted in all seriousness, like dying wasn't a big deal to him, "Now you are going to let Trigon walk out of here, and then you are going to let me go, whether I take Raven or not with me is completely up to you."

Raven's heart was beating faster than it ever had, and her hands were shaking in Malchior's grasp. The weapon felt freezing against her head, she kept her eyes on Garfield, seeking comfort in his terrified expression.

He in turn saw the fear in Raven's eyes. Her usual expressionless face was now tensed up, her eyes watery.

Garfield and Victor looked pleadingly at their Captain.

Captain Grayson's face twisted as he knew that he would have to let Malchior and Trigon go, as much as he wanted to make an arrest.

He knew how to handle situations like this, from all the extensive training he had had.

"You have one minute to leave before I am required to patrol you. But be warned, you will not get away with this." Captain Grayson said, letting his anger show.

"Much obliged Dick" Malchior grunted.

"Pleasure doing business with you" Trigon added as he made his way across the room, he turned to Raven on his way, reached out his hand and brushed her cheek.

She flinched at his touch, and Malchior's weapon pressed into her skin, pricking it ever so slightly so that blood trickled down the left side of her face.

"I will see you soon" was all he said to his daughter before turning and walking out of the house, brushing roughly pas Garfield on his way.

Captain Grayson gritted his teeth, "Your minute starts now" he said to Malchior.

Pushing Raven forward, still with her head being pressed by Malchior's foreign weapon.

"Without Detective Roth" The Captain said.

"Actually," Malchior grinned, "I think I'll take her with me, for insurance"

Garfield snapped at his words, "If you lay a finger on her I swear I'll-!" He began, lunching forward for the other man, but Malchior was faster than Garfield, and ducked out of the way, pulling Raven with him out of the house.

It all happened so quickly that Raven barely had a second to realise what was happening, and before she knew it she was being shoved into the back seat of Malchior's car, and driven out into the night, leaving the people she felt safest with behind.

She put her hand to her cut caused by the weapon, and wrapped her arms around herself.

She was right back to where she began, and she was unsure if she would ever get back to normal again.

(Scene Break)

"You are very quiet back there" Malchior said glancing in his rear view mirror at Raven, who was fixated on the road outside her window.

"What do you expect me to say? Do you expect me to have a conversation with my kidnapper?" She snapped.

Malchior eased the car to a stop at the side of the road, killed the engine and turned in his seat, "You do understand that if you were not Trigon's daughter I would have killed you by now?"

Raven shrugged, "I probably wouldn't know you if I weren't Trigon's daughter."

Malchior nodded, "probably not" he said with a vacant look in his eyes.

Raven swallowed hard, her throat dry, "What are you doing?" She asked suspiciously.

It was cold out and if they left the heat off for long enough they would freeze.

"Let's just say that you are not needed right now." Malchior said, "But stay alert, Raven. I shall call on you again, and you may not be shown the same mercy as you have received recently. Your father is extremely unhappy with you, but he was right about you. You have no blood allegiance. Very dishonourable, Raven."

Raven bit her lip, "So, you are letting me go?"

"See? You are just so desperate to get back to those nobodies that you call friends." Malchior spat, Raven noticed that he did seem slightly disappointed, "now get out!"

Raven almost jumped at Malchior's abruptness.

She looked out of her window and the frost covered grass and the dark emptiness. She would surely die out there.

"You're leaving me here?" She asked with uncertainty.

Without answering her, Malchior unbuckled himself, opened his door, hopped out of the car and made his way around to Raven's door in less than five seconds.

Raven didn't even have a chance to blink.

Grabbing the door and yanking it open, Malchior caught hold of Raven's shoulders and hauled her out of the car as she tried to fight back.

His grasp was firm and he was much stronger than she was physically.

"I thought you said you needed me alive?!" Raven asked, her face was flushed and the freezing air stung her cheeks, "I will die out here."

Malchior shoved the girl to the ground where she landed on cool ice. He let out a deranged chuckle, "You're lover boy will come to the rescue." He stated.

Using all her might, Raven pushed her tired body up from the ground, she knew that Malchior meant Garfield when he said 'lover boy' "And what if he doesn't? Are you so sure that he is going to show that you are just going to leave me here?" She almost pleaded with her kidnapper.

Malchior shrugged, "I really don't care anymore. I was willing to give you a second chance, Raven, but you have let me down. I'll see you soon- if you make it through the night that is." Malchior said, walking back around to his car, starting the ignition and driving away.

Raven was now totally alone. Although she had got here by the freeway, there were no cars in sight.

She was not appropriately dressed for the cold, and she felt the air press against her skin, making her feel both freezing and warm.

She was aware of the signs of hypothermia, and was willing to fight it. But after wandering for twenty minutes to find she had walked in a circle, she gave in to the hopelessness.

Nobody was coming to get her. She would die here, just another nameless girl in the nothingness.

Raven sat down, the ground oddly feeling softer than it should have.

Maybe it was the right time for her to let go, before she could cause anybody else any pain or suffering.

Maybe this was exactly how it was meant to be.

And maybe, if she just closed her eyes, everything would be better.

So that's what she did, in the freezing cold, Raven lay, her eyes closed, her body still, on the ice covered grass.

(Scene Break)

There was noise, so much noise.

Raven scrunched her face up as her eyeballs began to move rapidly behind her eyelids.

Her whole body felt heavy, but she willed her eyes open.

She was still on the grass, but there were people, familiar people: cops, detectives, paramedics.

She tried to sit up, but was stopped by a gentle hand on her shoulder.

The Sergeant was knelt beside Raven, his hand on her shoulder and his face warm. "Try not to move" he soothed.

Raven was glad that it was him and not Garfield there at that moment.

Victor had a better way of dealing with her at times, and although Garfield's heart was always pure, he sometimes had an annoying way of going about his business.

"Malchior" Raven croaked.

"We're try'na find him Raven. Don't you worry, you just focus on staying still." Victor said, staying completely calm. The siren lights illuminated his dark face and Raven could see the worry painted on it.

"Why… Can't… I… Move?" She managed to ask between breaths.

"You're gonna' go to the hospital so the doctors can find out for sure, but it looks like you may have hypothermia." Victor said candidly, which Raven again was thankful for.

Then she heard Garfield's.

He cares too much, that was his problem, and Raven really couldn't handle his sweetness at that moment.

She looked at Victor, pleading with her eyes to not let him speak to her, not until she was feeling better.

The whole night had been terrible for her, and all she wanted was to rest so she could gather her thoughts.

The Sergeant seemed to get her message, and looked up at Garfield, "She woke up for a bit man, but she passed out again. Don't worry, she's gonna be fine."

Garfield nodded, looking in sympathy at his partner lying frozen on the ground.

"If you hadn't insisted that he'd come this way," Victor continued, "And we had went the way the Captain wanted us to, she may not have been with us now. You saved her."

Raven kept her eyes closed as she was pretending to be asleep, but she was listening intently to the conversation, although nothing really was sinking in, as the strong pull of darkness was dragging her back down.

Before she succumbed to its dream filled force once again, she heard Garfield say, "Victor, I really think I'm fallin' for her, like hard. And I don't know if I can deal with all of this, I mean when she told me about it I thought maybe she was exaggerating but she really wasn't. This is crazy."

Victor frowned, "If you really do like her, then all of this should be worth it. Is it all of this worth it for her?"

Raven had fallen asleep before she could hear Garfield answer:

"Yeah."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17- Confrontation

December 8th, 12:16pm

"Detective Raven?" Starfire asked softly, approaching the detective's desk.

Raven didn't move her eyes away from her computer screen as the foreign girl leaned on her desk.

"Yes?" Raven said as her fingers moved rhythmically on her keyboard.

"I was wondering if you wished to perhaps grab a beverage and chat at lunch?" The girl asked hopefully.

Raven stopped typing, her mouth twitched in annoyance.

For the past month everyone had been coddling Raven, after the incident at the house. Everyone had been treating her like the didn't know how to act around her.

She knew it was because she hadn't told anyone exactly what had happened after Malchior had kidnapped her, and they all thought the worst.

Perhaps her not talking about it put them more on edge. They didn't know what horrors she may have experienced due to their faults, or more specifically, Captain Grayson's fault.

Raven respected the Captain, but she was still angry at him for pursuing his personal hate he held for Slade Wilson over her own safety. If he had acted more professionally things may not have worked out the way they didn't.

"I don't really feel like eating." Raven said, still not looking at the secretary.

Garfield, who was seated at his usual seat across from Raven and had been listening to the conversation, glanced over at Raven with a concerned look.

She had been off with him ever since the incident, and kept to her room, declining herself from him. She had asked the Captain if she could not be put back on the field for a while, so Garfield had spent hardly any time with her.

He too worried that Malchior had done something unforgivable to Raven, but he didn't want to jump to any conclusions.

Starfire tried again, "Are you sure? We could get the liquid chocolate that is hot and perhaps visit the mall of shopping or-"

Raven tensed, "look, I don't want to okay? I just want to sit here and do my job, is that too much to ask?!" Raven's voice slowly began to rise into a shout, "Can't I just do my job without everyone breathing down my neck all the time? Could everyone just please mind their own business because I am so sick of all these sideways glances and sympathetic looks and the whispering!" She looked around the now silent bullpen. "It's none of your business what happened, it's not related to any case that you are working, so drop it, okay?" She pushed herself up from her desk and stormed off to one of the interrogation rooms.

Everyone tried to look busy, but they were all watching her out of the corner of their eyes.

Captain Grayson had emerged from his office, and stood almost open mouthed at Raven's outburst.

Shaking his head he said, "Everyone get back to work." And then started on the same path Raven had walked moments ago.

Garfield jumped up. "Let me go talk to her" He said, his green eyes pleading.

The Captain would've have told him "no", if he hadn't noticed that Starfire was on the verge of tears, still standing where she had been when Raven exploded.

"Very well" Captain Grayson nodded, "but make sure she comes to my office at the end of the day."

Garfield nodded gratefully and sped off.

"I did not mean to make her angry, I did not mean to make her dislike everybody" Starfire said in a low voice.

The Captain put a comforting hand on the tall girl's shoulder and said "It wasn't your fault, Star."

Starfire nodded in understanding.

Captain Grayson sighed, "Detective Roth has many difficulties in her life, but trust me, if she continues to speak lie that to you or any of my detectives, one of her problems will be trying to find new employment."

(Scene Break)

Garfield was pissed as he headed to the interview room that Raven had locked herself in.

He had tried to talk to her for so long, not even about the incident, even though he really wanted to know exactly how much he should hate Malchior by knowing what he had done to her to make her so constantly on edge.

He had tried being nice, but maybe it was time to try a different approach.

He pushed open the door to find Raven sitting at one of the chairs at the interrogation table.

"What the hell was that?" He asked, closing the door behind him.

Raven drowned in confusion at his tone, "What do you mean? Am I not allowed to feel angry?"

"Feeling angry is totally fine, but being angry every second of every day shows that there might be a problem somewhere." Garfield pointed out.

Raven snapped up quickly, "You have no right to talk to me like this" she warned.

Garfield crossed his arms and looked accusingly at her, "I have no right to speak to you like that? How do you think Starfire feels? Or every other detective in this precinct? Did you adjust your tone when you realised it was bad?"

"I think you should leave… Now." Raven said staring at the blond haired boy, her eyes blazing.

Garfield shook his head, blocking the door with his body, "I'm not goin' anywhere until you talk to me!"

"Why?!" Raven shouted, "Why do you want me to talk to you?! What is it you want to hear Garfield? That I'm completely find with my Captain messing up and I ended up being kidnapped. Do you want me to tell you that I don't still get flashbacks of that weapon being pressed to my head? Do you want to hear that I'm completely fine, that absolutely nothing about that night scares me?"

Raven regretted her outburst as soon as it was out in the open.

Garfield didn't even blink, instead he moved toward her, reaching out for her, but she pushed him away with her hands.

"You don't get to try and comfort me" She warned, then pushed past him and back out of the room.

Garfield stood still in his place. He had blew his chance with her, but he was already in too deep. She was dangerous yet intriguing. And even though she had made it clear she didn't want anything to do with him at the moment, he still wanted her.

He wanted her so bad.

And no matter what, he was going to try his best to get her.

(Scene Break)

1pm

"Logan, Roth, my office" Captain Grayson called from his desk.

Raven moved swiftly whereas Garfield was slower in his response.

He was almost certain they were in trouble for something.

"Close the door behind you" The Captain said as the detectives entered his office.

Garfield did so and then took a seat on the chair adjacent to Raven.

The Captain got straight down to business.

"Since there has been no detection of Slade Wilson, Trigon or Malchior, I'm assigning you another case until they resurface- if they ever resurface." He paused for a beat, zoning out for a second before snapping himself back to reality, "Here is your new case" He said, handing them a paper folder each.

They both opened them to find two head shots of a man and woman, presumably in their early thirties.

"This is a case that hasn't had enough sufficient evidence to pursue until now. In front of you are pictures of William Numerous- or Billy as he is more commonly known. The woman is his partner Lisa Finch. Miss Finch is an attorney, who we have evidence of extreme obstruction. She, along with Mr Numerous, apparently befriend couples at holiday resorts and then invite them back to their apartment, where they sedate their victims and plant items on them and claim that they have been stolen. Miss Finch then goes on to prosecute them, and she always wins."

The detectives nodded along with the Captain as they read their files with him.

"To catch them in the act I need you to go undercover as a couple."

Raven's eyes widened, this was the last thing she needed.

"Is there not some their way?" She asked.

"We could just wait for them to act but that could take too long, plus enough innocent people have suffered because of these ruthless people."

"Where will we be goin'?" Garfield asked.

"Right now, our suspects are en route to Canada for a ski vacation. Your plane departs at 6pm, I suggest you pack something warm."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18- Faking It

December 9th, 8am

Garfield's eyes slowly opened to the sound of his raging alarm. Flipping it off with one hand he turned over in his warm bedsheets and looked out of the vertical window near his bed.

All he could see for miles was snow covered mountains, the morning sun shining down on them.

They were in a hotel ski resort, which had only been a thirty minute drive from the airport.

The flight had actually gone better than expected, it turned out that both Raven and Garfield loved flying.

During the flight, Raven had seemed to have calmed down more, and looking down at the clouds below her filled her with much needed comfort. She wasn't sure why she loved the feeling of flight so much, maybe it was because she wasn't tied down to earth, or because she was away from all the badness.

The two were actually on speaking terms again by the time the plane had landed, however they soon felt awkward once again when the got to the Ski Resort Hotel to find that their room only consisted of a double bed and a bathroom.

Raven had instantly went to the small couch, barely big enough to fit her on it comfortably, without saying a word and she promptly fell asleep.

Garfield had felt bad about how uncomfortable she looked, but he didn't want to argue, so he took the bed.

And boy did he feel good in the morning.

Unlike Raven, who sat up with her face pained and started to stretch out her aching bones, Garfield sprang to life.

"Morning!" He chirped, flinging the covers off of himself and heading to the bathroom.

"Morning." Raven grunted, trying not to look at Garfield's bare torso but failing miserably.

Her body was sore from lying in one position all night, and when she heard the shower being turned on her eyes stared at the bed intently.

Quietly, she moved from the uncomfortable sofa, and onto the soft bed. She ran her hands delicately over where Garfield had been sleeping all night.

The other side of the bed was cold, but this side, this side was warm.

And it smelled good.

"Just five minutes" Raven times herself as she snuggled into Garfield's spot in the bed, pulling be covers up to her chin and closing her eyes. Her nostrils filling with the familiar smell of Garfield.

(Scene Break)

"Who's been sleeping in my bed?" Garfield said, deepening his voice like the bears from the classic children's story.

Raven stirred a little, still asleep on Garfield's side of the bed.

He leaned down closer and shouted louder, "Who's been sleeping in my bed?!"

Raven jumped awake and almost bumped heads with Garfield.

Garfield laughed at her disoriented face, "Sleep well?" He asked.

It had been the best sleep she had had in so long, even though it was a quick nap.

Raven looked at Garfield, taking in his fully clothed form, and noticing in his hands he was holding a brown bag filled with food and coffees in the other.

"How long was I asleep for?" Raven asked, realising she had slept for more than five minutes.

"Nearly two hours." Garfield said handing her a coffee and making his way around to the other side of the bed and sitting beside her. "It looked like you needed it."

Raven nodded and peered into the brown bag, her eyes lit up.

"They didn't have much left downstairs, you like waffles right?" Garfield asked.

Raven felt a happiness that had been absent from her for a very long time.

"Yes." She said, "yes I do"

(Scene Break)

Garfield was surprisingly good at skiing.

Raven had opted not to try it out, and sat in the lounge that looked out onto the slopes. She watched him from a leather chair by the fire. A hot chocolate in her hands keeping them cosy.

She was on the look out for Billy and Lisa, but it was hard to recognise people under the hats and goggles.

Without her noticing, Garfield creeped up behind her and squeezed her shoulders, making her squirm.

"Hey you!" He said taking his ice cold hands off of Raven's warm skin.

Raven was about to ask "what the hell?!" But didn't have a chance to as she was enveloped in a giant hug from Garfield. He made sure her mouth was pressed into his shoulder and he whispered quietly in her ear, "Billy and Lisa are in this lounge" he said.

Raven rolled her eyes, guessing it was time to act all in love.

She would be lying is she said that she wasn't looking forward to it a teeny bit.

Releasing Raven from his hug, Garfield sat across from Raven, trying not to look surprised when he looked into her eyes and saw emotion.

Fair enough it was fake but it looked very convincing.

Raven's eyes were wide in awe, and her mouth was set in a grin.

She knew she had to get Billy and Lisa's attention, it was time to play the adoring girlfriend.

"So…" Raven said loudly, "How was the slopes honey?"

Garfield held in the giggle at hearing Raven speak like this, "So good! I think you should try 'em out! It's really easy to get the hang of."

"I'm happy just watching you" Raven said flirtatiously.

Garfield nearly blushed, "I hope so" he grinned.

"I'm gonna' grab a coffee, you wanting anything babe?" Garfield asked as he stood up.

"No thanks, I still have this" Raven answered, gesturing to her hot chocolate.

Garfield smiled, "Okay" he leaned down, kissed her forehead and walked off to the counter, "I'll be two minutes."

Raven ignored the kiss, realising Garfield was trying to move them closer to the suspects without it being noticeable.

She jumped up from her seat, leaving her lukewarm hot chocolate behind and joined Garfield in the queue, tapping him on the shoulder.

The were in direct sight of Billy and Lisa.

She had to get their attention.

Garfield turned around, clearly surprised.

Raven could feel them watching her, time to prove her love.

She quickly went up on her tiptoes and pushed her lips to Garfield's.

Garfield instantly closed his eyes, knowing that they were supposed to be a couple, and couples kissed passionately all the time and never looked awkward.

It was a quick kiss but boy was it good.

Once they broke apart, Raven out her arm around his waist and snuggled into him, "I decided I didn't want to be away from you again." She smiled, feeling the warmth radiate from his body.

Garfield put his arm around her shoulders, it felt so natural.

"Aren't you cute?" He said holding her close to him.

A big part of him wanted this all to be real.

They order their coffees, still holding one another, and turned to go back to where they had been sitting, to find that another couple had taken their space.

"Excuse me?" A short blonde woman with a pointed nose said from behind them, making them turn around, "I noticed that your seats have been taken, would you like to sit with my partner and I?" Lisa Finch asked.

"Are you sure, we wouldn't want to impose?" Raven asked.

"Not at all, Billy and I love meeting lovely couples such as yourselves." Lisa insisted.

Raven controlled her urge to put in a sarcastic comment of "I'm sure you do" and instead said "Thank you! It's so nice to meet genuinely good people these days! I'm Raven and this is my boyfriend Garfield."

The words "Boyfriend Garfield" rolled so easily off of her tongue that it scared her, but she had to ignore it.

She had been trying her hardest to suppress her feelings for him for a good while, and this trip, she could just feel it, was going to test her ability to keep them pushed down as best she could.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19- Hot

December 9th, 5:42pm

"C'mon Rae, we don't want to be late!" Garfield called, pacing back and forth outside of the bathroom door.

They had gotten along well with Billy and Lisa and had been targeted as their next victims. They had been invited to dinner at the hotel's restaurant, just as the couples they manipulate always are.

Garfield double checked through his shirt that he had his gun.

"C'mon Raven, what is takin' you so long?" Garfield moaned.

"I don't know if you've realised Garfield, but the restaurant is not the type of restaurant that I can wear jeans to." Raven said through the bathroom door.

She was fully clothed, but was trying to work up the nerve to actually leave the room and go out in what she was wearing.

Her hair was pulled up in a loose bun, with thin curls framing her face. A red dress clung to get cleavage and let out at her waist, making her figure look amazing. She had applied smoky eyeshadow and filled in we eyebrows lightly. She added a Scarlett lipstick as a finishing touch, flushing colour into her usually pale face.

She took one brave step, in her black stilettos, towards the door, one foot after the other.

Taking a deep breath, Raven opened the door.

"Don't say anything!" She warned before Garfield could say anything.

Garfield tried to stay as proper as he could. He didn't let his eyes wander although they wanted to so badly. He wanted to look at every inch of her perfect body. Instead he kept his eyes locked with Raven's.

She felt so bare, like he could see everything, and she ignored the frightful joy it brought her.

"We should leave, we have reservations" Raven spoke with surprising confidence as she led the way out of their room and out into the hallway.

Her shoes squeezed her toes but she ignored the pain. For once she felt good, hot even.

"Remember, we need to be as convincing as possible tonight." Raven reminded Garfield as they entered the elevator.

Garfield nodded, "That was the plan"

"Just do whatever is necessary okay? But within reason. Hand holding, hugging, close proximity…"

"So romantic" Garfield joked, blinking his eyelashes.

Raven nudged him with her elbow.

They were almost at the ground floor.

"So when we get into the lobby, we start acting" She reiterated.

Garfield nodded, silently knowing that he wouldn't actually be acting.

As soon as they stepped out into the lobby Raven grabbed Garfield's hand and pulled him along with her playfully.

He placed his arm over her shoulders and pulled Raven close to him. Not knowing that Raven's heart rate was increasingly rapidly as a result of his touch.

Casually, they looked around the lobby, searching for Billy and Lisa but they were nowhere to be seen.

"They might already be in the restaurant" Garfield said, "you did take forever in the bathroom"

Raven fought the urge to nudge him again.

They got to the restaurant, still entwined.

"Reservation for Logan" Garfield said as the waiter greeted them.

The waiter checked his list, "Ah yes, table for four?"

"Uh… Yeah, it looks like our friends haven't arrived yet." Garfield said sheepishly.

"I can show you your table and get you some drinks while you wait." The waiter insisted, leading them to a table in a secluded area of the restaurant. "Mr Numerous ensured that you got the best table in the restaurant, he phoned up earlier and insisted I let you sit here. It is usually reserved for VIP's. You have very generous friends."

Raven rolled her eyes discretely. Billy was trying to win them over like he did with all his victims, and she knew she had to play along.

"Aw that was so nice of him!" Raven smiled as Garfield pulled out her seat for her to sit down.

When they were both seated they order a bottle of wine for the table and then the waiter left.

The restaurant was pretty, with cream walls and brown flooring. There corner was indeed secluded, and the chatter of the other diners was barely audible.

"Do you think they've stood us up?" Garfield asked jokingly.

"I hope not." Raven said. She felt strangely nervous. It wasn't going to be hard to arrest these people, she knew that. And that's not what was making her jittery- but the man sitting beside her was.

When the wine was brought to the table Raven lifted it immediately to pour herself a glass.

"Here, let me" Garfield said, taking the bottle from her hands when he saw her struggle under its weight.

He lifted it and poured half a glass for each of them, doing so with quite a bit of flare.

"I was a barman for one summer to save up some money so I could get into the academy." Garfield shrugged as he took a sip of the rich wine.

Raven took a gulp of hers. She was going to need it.

Before an awkward silence occurred, Billy and Lisa came into view and waved at them as they approached.

Lisa's hair was slightly tousled and Billy's cheeks were flushed.

Raven caught on quickly.

"Sorry we are late." Lisa said as she sat down, "we were uh-" She giggled.

"We got a little carried away. You know what I mean eh?" Billy laughed, aiming the question at Garfield. He laughed along politely.

Raven stopped herself from rolling her eyes.

"I'm actually surprised you two got down here before us. A couple of young things like yourselves, if I were still your age I'd be-"

"Billy! I'm sure that type of talk is not for the dinner table" Lisa said becoming embarrassed.

Billy grinned and planked a smooch on Lisa's lips.

Lisa turned to them, smiling wildly, "I want to know more about you." She said, "How did you two meet?"


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20- Home

December 9th, 6:18pm

Raven started to panic, they hadn't gone over how they'd met. They hadn't went over their fake past.

"Erm, well" Raven stuttered.

Garfield put his hand over Raven's, "you see she gets embarrassed when she talks about it. She was working as a barista and as soon as I saw her I knew. She took my breath away. So I ordered my coffee but once I finished it I knew I couldn't leave without getting her name. So I ordered another coffee, but she obviously must have liked me too because she got a little clumsy when she was pouring my coffee. We both ended up scolded by the red hot water and she offered to wash my clothes for me and she gave me her name and number. I asked her out about a week later"

He stared lovingly at Raven. She blushed.

"Yes" Raven said softly, "There was just something about him that scared me, but in a good way. He was so terrifying that he intrigued me." She wasn't lying.

"Well aren't you two adorable?" Billy whooped.

"Are you ready to order?" The waiter asked when he approached the table.

They did so and the conversation moved onto a different topic. Garfield had zoned out, and was focussing on what Raven had been saying about him. A tiny spark had ignited within him, as there was something telling him she was being sincere when she said it.

(Scene Break)

After dinner, the two couples had moved out into the main lounge area. Laura and Billy were at the bar a couple of feet away, still close my so the undercover detectives could see them.

Raven and Garfield were on a two seater sofa that seemed to only for one and a half people, so Raven was sitting half on top of him.

She wasn't heavy though.

She had had a little more to drink than Garfield had expected her to take, and now she was swaying slightly.

Garfield swallowed, the last time they had gotten intimate Raven had been drunk. He didn't want to take advantage of that fact, by he wanted her to be honest with her.

"Raven?" He asked.

"Hm?"

"Did you mean what you said about me scaring you or what that just made up?"

Raven still had her sense, and stiffened at his words. "I don't know" she said honestly, "I don't know how I feel about you Garfield. One minute I don't want to be near you and the next I like being with you. I need time."

"For the record, I feel the same about you. Only I kinda only want to be with you, I feel lost when you're not around." Garfield admitted.

Raven adjusted herself and stood up, "come with me for a second" she said.

"But what about Lisa and Billy?" He asked glancing over at the bar.

"We're going in that direction don't worry." Raven said softly.

Garfield followed her intrigued. When they passed the bar, Raven called to Billy and Lisa and invited them with her.

Within minutes they were standing at a balcony overlooking the mountains. It was freezing cold, but the view was breathtaking.

The white snow and the black sky contrasted so beautifully, the stars gleamed like crystals above. Raven smiled. She snuggled into Garfield.

"This reminds me of home" she whispered to him, "in the winter we got snow falls like this. My mother would bring me out at night and let me just look at it for a while before I got too cold."

"It's beautiful" Garfield said.

"This is how you make me feel" She said even quieter.

"What?" Garfield asked suddenly confused.

She looked out at the wonderful view, "You make me feel like I'm home. That I'm safe. That I'm beautiful."

Garfield had no words to say, so instead he leaned down and kissed her passionately.

They didn't stop for a breath as their lips clung to each other, their arms holding one another as close as possible.

Raven didn't want it to end, and for the brief moments she forgot that they were in the company of another two people.

She stopped, biting her lip, but knowing she had to stop. It was so tempting to continue, to just show their feelings physically rather than try and say them.

But she had to stay on task.

Billy whooped immaturely, clapping his hands, "You two sure love each other" he remarked.

Garfield rubbed his neck, "Sorry about that"

"Don't be silly!" Lisa chirped in, "you two are honestly the cutest. Say, it's getting a bit boring down here, would you like to come up to our room for some drinks?"

This was it. Both detectives ears pricked up.

"We wouldn't want to impose.." Raven started, making them sound as genuine as possible.

"Come on now! We insist. It'll be a blast. Hey Garfield, you any good at cards?" Billy asked as he lead them to the elevator.

Garfield gripped Raven's hand as they entered the elevator, giving her the strength she needed.

(Scene Break)

About an hour later, the four of them had drank roughly four drinks each. Garfield and Billy were playing cards while Raven and Lisa sat on the bed, chatting away tipsily.

Lisa handed Raven a drink that she had poured for her.

At the back of her mind, Raven remembered that Lisa drugged her victims and she politely declined.

"I think I've had enough" she said.

Lisa frowned, ready to insist that she drinks it, Raven had to think quick.

"I'm trying to cut down my alcohol intake, we're trying to get pregnant" Raven lied.

Lisa's eyes widened in surprise, "how sweet!" She cheered.

Raven turned to check on Garfield, and was too late to remind him of the drugged drink, as he took a swig of what Billy had handed him.

Raven got to her feet slowly when she saw Lisa shake her head furiously at Billy after he had handed Garfield the drink.

In seconds Garfield fell forward and slumped on the table.

"Well would you look at that!" Billy said, "your man seems to have had a little too much to drink."

Lisa's eyes flicked to a bedside drawer and then back to Raven.

"You can drop the act now." Raven said, pushing down the effects of the alcohol, "Lisa Finch and Billy Numerous, you are under arrest. I know that when I open that drawer I will find jewellery that you were planning to plant on my partner and I."

"you're a cop?" Billy asked confused.

"Detective Raven Roth, Gotham PD." Raven said, pulling out her badge from her purse.

"Shit" Lisa moaned, "You're a pretty good actress I'll give you that. We're all of those sweetheart eyes fake? Or are you two actually a couple?"

"That's none of your business" Raven snapped, putting her phone to her ear.

"Hello" Captain Grayson answered.

"Captain we have Billy and Lisa under arrest. Send the Canadian police in to pick them up please." Raven said, not taking her eyes of off the guilty couple.

"I'll have that done straight away. Well done Detective Roth. I'll have the hotel security sent up until the Canadian officials get there. Good work."

Raven smiled slightly, it seemed things were finally looking up.

"You know, when we get cleared of this- and we will" Billy said, "we are gonna come after you and you're little boyfriend. We know people in Gotham. People who can get things done. So if I were you, I'd sleep with one eye open"

Raven clenched her jaw, but didn't say anything, instead she got Garfield from under his armpits and dragged him along with her, before she left she called back, "enjoy prison!"


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21- Overtime

December 19th, 6:01pm

Raven's eyes snapped open when she heard a loud thump.

Garfield was leaned over a long cardboard box, that had apparently fallen, he was wincing.

"Sorry" he said, realising he had woken Raven.

Raven sat up, lifting the book from her chest.

"It's fine." She remarked, "I didn't mean to fall asleep anyway" Raven looked at the box on the floor, "I see you managed to get a Christmas tree." A smile played on her lips.

Nodding, Garfield opened the box to reveal a dark green artificial tree. He grinned, "let's get this up shall we?"

Raven snuggled back down, "how about you just do it" She joked.

Garfield started pulling her off of the couch, and she landed on him, let out a small gasp of happiness.

"I'll help if you make it worth my while" she teased.

Garfield grinned, pecking her softly.

"Okay, we need to get this done" Raven said, rolling off of him.

Now Garfield had a case of laziness, "or we could just do that for a bit longer."

Raven pulled the tree upright and began to pull the branches out.

Garfield reluctantly joined her.

He handed her the lights, and the decorations, and in the hour the tree looked perfect.

The both stood back as they turned on the lights.

Garfield put his arm around Raven, "Not bad" he said, "but I think those decorations that you put up aren't on properly."

Raven nudged him, "very funny."

"Do you think at this Christmas party anyone will notice us?" Garfield asked.

"Hopefully they will still have eyes so maybe" Raven said sarcastically.

"You know what I mean" Garfield said, removing his arm and facing her straight on, "I'm kinda crazy about you Raven, and I wouldn't mind the world knowing about it"

Raven's stomach fluttered at his words and the honesty in his eyes.

She sighed, "I just don't want people making a big deal about it, and I already think that we've moved really fast, not that I'm complaining, but I like this being between us at the moment."

"Okay" Garfield said, "as long as I get to be with you I don't care."

(Scene Break)

"Ugh" Garfield complained two hours later as he sat at his desk at the precinct, "I hate bein' called in at night." He had received an unexpected phone call from The Captain asking him to come in straight away. Garfield was going to say he couldn't but Raven convinced him that he should, just in case it was something urgent.

So far it didn't seem urgent as he had been at the precinct for over twenty minutes and Captain Grayson hadn't once emerged from his office.

"Chill G" Victor said, taking a bite of his sandwich, "it's obviously important if he called you in."

Garfield leaned against Victor's desk, "I better be gettin' paid overtime for this" he moaned.

Victor stopped mid chew, "usually you're dyin' to work a case and come into work, what's changed?"

Garfield shifted his gaze ever so slightly, no longer looking his best friend in the eyes, "Dude!" Victor exclaimed, "It's a girl!"

For a police sergeant, Victor Stone would still act like a teenager.

Garfield's cheeks went red.

"Who is it?!" Victor pressed, "Do I know her? Is she nice? Oh wait, is it a guy? 'Cause if it is that's totally cool if that's who you are-"

"I'll tell you when I actually know if it's a thing" Garfield said, "And for the record it's definitely a girl."

The Sergeant finished his sandwich just as Raven walked out of the elevator.

He was still looking at Garfield when she entered the room, and saw his eyes light up when the detective walked in.

"Ah" Victor said under his breath, realising why perhaps Garfield was so reluctant to leave his apartment.

"What are you doin' here?" Garfield asked Raven as she walked over to him.

"You forgot this" She said, handing him his cell phone, "Just in case you run into trouble or anything."

"Thanks" He smiled gratefully. Perhaps he hadn't accidentally left his cell on the kitchen counter a minute before he left. And of course he didn't know for sure that Raven would be worried if he didn't have it with him, but she wouldn't realise until he had already left because she was busy untangling more Christmas lights. He definitely did not know that she would drive all the way to the station just to give him it, and he would be able to see her again for a couple of extra minutes.

"Logan" The Captain called.

Garfield raised his eyebrows at the Captain's tone, he did not sound happy. "Wish me luck" He groaned and then walked to the office.

Raven watched his back as he went, unaware of Victor's eyes taking in her worried expression, and his brain making sense of the two friends being more than they let on to be.

She was one hundred times better than Terra, that was true. But she came with so much baggage that Victor wasn't sure if she was healthy for his friend. But if she made him happy, that was the most important thing right?

(Scene Break)

Garfield put his head back in his seat and stared at the ceiling, "You're kiddin' me right?" He asked, exhausted.

"Would I have called you in here on your day off if I was joking?" Captain Grayson said pointedly.

"I thought he was charged with his crime the last time?"

"He was." The Captain said, also sounding tired, "but he served his time and got out early for good behaviour, but it appears he's back to his old self again."

Garfield sighed harshly, "You know I hate this guy right?"

"Yes. That's exactly why I want you to make sure there is enough evidence to put him away for a long time this time." Captain Grayson's usual mask of no emotion still showed his tired bags.

"Fine. But if this guy pushes me and I do something that I'm gonna' later regret, you better have my back." Garfield said.

"Of course." The Captain nodded, "Thank you Garfield" he said candidly. "For taking this case, and for finding a way to make Detective Roth happier."

"Her happiness is not your responsibility." Garfield said, annoyed at the Captain's over controlling nature.

Captain Grayson cleared his throat, "Indeed. I shouldn't have thought like that. Thanks for coming in. I'll see you tomorrow"

Garfield was already out the door, the case file in his hands, he muttered a "yeah, see you tomorrow" under his breath.

Victor looked at him worried, he could instantly tell something was wrong, "What is it?" He asked.

Garfield didn't say anything, he just dropped the case file on his desk, grabbed his jacket and stalked off.

As soon as he was in the elevator, Victor and Raven moved at record speed to look at the file.

They peered over his desk, Raven saw Victor's face turn sour.

Obviously she didn't understand, but the name did seem to turn the room colder, especially since it even made Victor worried.

Raven read the name again, making a mental note of it, so she could ask Garfield who this person was.

She had to go after him, she knew it.

Taking one last look at the file she turned and left, saying goodnight to Victor as she left.

On Garfield's desk she left behind the case file with the name printed in bold capital letters- ADONIS.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22- Rain

December 20th, 3:02am

His eyes scanned over the screen as the slow process of hacking into a fully protected computer worked it's magic.

He took a swig of his Red Bull as he ignored his sleepiness.

He was getting closer to getting his revenge.

A noise from his laptop indicated that he had broken through the firewall.

A few clicks later and he had enabled his victim's web cam, and he could see that all the lights were off, his victim was sleeping.

Proud at his work, he prepared to go to sleep, sitting the laptop beside his bed, he was just about to close his eyes when she spotted movement.

It had been a while since he had last seen his smug face, and he watched the screen eagerly, wanting to see the blond headed cop he was going to destroy.

But what he saw was even better.

A young woman flicked a switch on and crossed the room, not noticing the red light beside the web cam.

She poured herself a glass of water, and took a sip.

She was good looking, very good looking.

How did that little twerp get a girl like that?

And then he saw him.

Wearing nothing but a pair of green bottoms, he also crossed the room, and asked the pretty girl, "You okay?"

She shrugged, "Have you come out office bad mood from earlier?"

He rubbed his face, "I'll show you the case files tomorrow, you'll understand why I hate this guy."

She nodded tiredly as he placed a kiss on her forehead, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down for more.

The watcher screwed his face up in disgust.

She shouldn't be kissing a guy like that.

They couple left the view, and Adonis collapsed on his bed, exhausted.

He closed his eyes and fell asleep to the delightful thoughts of getting his revenge on Garfield Logan.

Maybe the best way to do so would be to get that pretty girl off of him.

He had great ideas for her.

(Scene Break)

"I saw that Adonis is back" Victor said after he greeted Garfield the next morning, "We all hate the guy so if you need any help with this one I got your back."

Garfield nodded, "Thanks" he said. "I'm gonna' fill Raven in on Adonis, you wanna help since I may get pretty angry?"

The Sergeant glanced at his pile of paper work, "Ah what the hell" he said standing up and dragging his chair over to Garfield's desk.

Raven had also pulled her chair over, and Garfield sat himself down.

"Okay, you're gonna' hate this guy after this" Garfield started.

"Adonis, who's real name is Ben Green, is basically a sexual predator. He thinks he's superior to everyone else and he acts on it. He's sexist and racist and basically everything bad that a person can be." He took a deep breath before carrying on. "He terrorises woman, he preys on the weak, we had so many reports of him, every woman reported that he called himself Adonis, after the god." Garfield clenched his teeth.

Victor picked up where he left off to stop his friend from getting angry, "Unfortunately, when it came to his trial, only one woman came forward to testify against him. Apparently the others felt unsafe about stepping up against him."

Raven nodded in understanding.

"We need to get him this time, but I don't want to put any other women through that. We can't just sit around and wait for him to attack someone." Garfield said.

Raven pushed some stray hairs out of her face, "He didn't serve his full sentence did he?" She asked.

"Nope" The Sergeant answered.

"So he probably thinks he got away with what he done. We could prove that he's not and get him imprisoned again, and then he might decide not to strike again." Raven suggested.

"Well he's already up to his old tricks apparently according to that case file. He hasn't actually done anything yet, but I just know he's going to." Garfield said.

"Well… Since we aren't wanting anyone to get hurt, why don't we see if he will try anything with me?" Raven asked.

Garfield was immediate to react, "No way." He said, "I'm not letting you put yourself in that kind of danger."

Victor watched the scene before him quietly. His suspicions of their relationship was confirmed by Garfield's reaction.

"What do you mean, you're not letting me?" Raven asked feeling the irritation rise in her throat, "it would be the best way to prove that he hasn't changed"

"I don't care. We'll find another way to do it, but I don't want you getting involved with this guy, he's my problem okay?" Garfield pointed out.

Raven turned to Victor, "What do you think Sergeant?" She asked.

Garfield clenched his jaw.

Professionally, Victor evaluated the situation and came to his conclusion after a few moments of silence, "it would make sense to have an officer infiltrate the situation. Raven is our only female detective at the precinct unfortunately."

"Plus," Raven said, "He wouldn't get a chance to try anything because I'll present my badge and tell him that he is breaching his parole. We will have evidence that he's not changed and we can try and get statements from the women he has already tried to harass."

Standing up, Garfield shook his head, "Whatever" he said shortly and walked away from the desk in no particular direction.

Raven rolled her eyes when Victor looked at her.

"Maybe you should go talk to him" he suggested.

"I don't see what he's so wound up about."

Victor shook his head, "yeah you do Raven." He said standing up and going back to his pile of paper work with a groan.

Raven sighed and took heed of Victor's advice, retracing Garfield's steps to find him.

(Scene Break)

"Garfield wait" Raven called when she found him walking towards the end of the street.

He stopped at the sound of her voice, turning to face her as splashes of rain began to fall from the sky.

"I'm sorry" She said, "It was a stupid idea."

Garfield shoved his hands in his pockets, the rain beginning to dampen his hair. "It wasn't a stupid idea Raven, that's what is bugging me. It would work. I just can't stand the thought of you getting hurt."

"I'm not going to get hurt. I'm a cop too remember, my job is to put my life on the line for others. It's the same for you. I wouldn't stop you from doing something like that if it was for a good cause." Raven said, stepping closer to Garfield as the rain got heavier. In a forward move she took his hand in hers. "You have to trust me"

Looking at the pale hand in his, he nodded, beads of water sprinkling Raven's already wet face. "I do trust you" he said pulling her into an embrace.

Raven hugged Garfield back, feeling that he needed this more than her, for whatever reason.

She kissed him softly, sensing that he may also need that too.

His body relaxed gratefully as their lips caressed.

The cold rain cooled Raven's burning cheeks as they stood there, holding each other in the downpour.

"We should get back" Raven whispered.

"Yeah" Garfield said, still holding her, he kissed her once more, it lasted for a good five seconds, enough to hopefully get them through the day, and then they let go of each other and walked back towards the precinct with a proximity that would suggest that they were barely acquaintances.

As they made their way back to the precinct, they passed an alley where they heard the faint cry of help.

Instantly, the two detectives froze and listened carefully.

"Help!" "Help me!" The cry was female and coming from the alley.

Reaching into their holsters, Raven and Garfield creeped down the alley.

The shadows of two figures could be seen, one clearly holding the other down.

"Gotham PD freeze!" Garfield commanded.

The alley was dark for the time of day, probably because of the high brick walls and wooden ceiling that must've been put up by the owners of the adjacent shops to keep extra stock from getting wet.

"Oh how I've waited for this" the superior shadow said in a low voice.

Out of the corner of her eye, Raven could see Garfield's mouth twitching.

"You evil son of a-" Garfield started to say.

"C'mon Garfield, you know you gotta play the game." The shadow said, "it's a new game, very different from my old one, you wanna' hear how it works?" The figure stepped out of the darkness to reveal a stalwart man with a shaven head. Raven knew straight away that it was Adonis, he had buffed out since his mugshot was taken, but he was still recognisable.

In his grasp he had a girl, no older than twenty in a head lock.

"The game is called Ruin Garfield Logan's Life and here's how you play." He said.

Garfield kept a deadly serious face and Raven did the same, but internally she was genuinely concerned.

"First I offer you a trade. This lovely girl" Adonis said looking down at the girl in his clutches, "For your fine woman" He growled looking hungrily at Raven.

Anger flashed in Garfield's eyes. He had been trained on situations like this, and he knew that the right thing to do was to protect the civilian.

Raven had the same thought, although fear ran cold in her veins, she knew what she had to do. But there was no way she was going to let the men trade her like an object.

"Okay" Raven said, keeping her eyes on the terrified looking girl, "let the girl go" she took a step forward.

"Aw would you look at that, you're partner is ever so selfless and brave isn't she?" Adonis said mockingly, "you should try and be more like her"

Garfield's hands shook with rage as he held his gun outstretched. It would be so easy for him to pull the trigger and kill the man standing before him. It would be so easy.

Raven took another step closer, reaching out her hand and taking the scares girl's hand. The girl grabbed hold of it gratefully, her sweaty hand trembled in Raven's.

"Put your gun down" Adonis demanded.

Raven did so, and when she did Adonis released the girl and roughly grabbed Raven by the shoulder.

In seconds she was in the same position that the young girl had been in seconds ago.

"You know Logan? It would be so easy to just squeeze the life out of this one right here, right now." Adonis said, tending his arm and cutting off Raven's oxygen supply.

She gasped, trying to gulp the air. She let out crackled sounds as she choked.

"Stop it!" Garfield commanded, "Stop it or I will shoot!"

Adonis stopped tensing as Raven spluttered.

"So I've let the Beast out have I?" Adonis laughed.

Garfield gritted his teeth, he had pressed his emergency button on his cell the moment he realised it was Adonis, his team should be there in seconds, and then Raven would be safe.

"Now here is how the game works. Think of this part as hide and seek if you like. Me and Raven are going to hide, you will have twenty four hours to find us. If you do not find us in the twenty four hours… Well" Adonis grinned, "I'll have no choice but to show your girl here what a real man is like."

Raven froze, her cheeks burning red hot. She caught eyes with Garfield and held his gaze. She tried to look confident in him, but she was extremely scared.

"Now I'm going to leave." Adonis grinned, "If you shoot I will squeeze the life out of her, got it?"

Complying, Garfield put his gun on the ground, "You're gonna regret this" he warned.

"Not as much as you are" Adonis spat and then, tightening his grip on Raven, he sped off away from Garfield, who watched helplessly and angrily as the woman he loved was ripped away from him once again.

His team had let him down, the same way they had let her down.

And he in turn had let Raven down, as she was now in the clutches of a crazed person.

He wasn't sure if she would trust him after this.

He wasn't giving up though. Seconds after Adonis was out of sight, Victor sped to haunt beside Garfield, along with other police men and women.

"Where is he?" The Sergeant panted.

"You're too late" Garfield said sourly, turning away and walking off down the alley on his own.

Victor squeezed him temple, "Man, here we go again" he said before going off to try and comfort his friend.

Garfield sped up, making his way to his desk to wait for the phone call. His only priority now was saving Raven.

She was all that mattered in his life. She was all he wanted. And he would do everything he could to keep her.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23- The Guest

December 22nd, 7:04am

Raven tried once again to get comfortable, the shackle around her left wrist rattling loudly as she did so.

She was cold, she was tired. The hunger in her stomach roared and rumbled, but she could not fill it.

She was shackled to an rotted bed frame, lying on a lumpy mattress in a near freezing room.

She guessed she was somewhere downtown as the shouts and cries of people was never ending.

Plenty of sirens had passed, their blue lights furiously flashing, but none had stopped to find her.

Adonis had knocked her out after she gave herself up, and she had woken up in her cell like prison when it was dark.

Now, the morning light shone in, battling against the heavy downpour of rain. She could almost see the sunlight through the dark blinds.

The heavy door was pushed open by her captor.

Adonis stomped in, a laptop under his arm.

"Good morning! I hope you had a good nights rest, because if your man doesn't pull through you won't be getting any sleep tonight" He chirped.

Raven scowled at him, staring him down.

"Ah, don't be like that." He said placing the laptop down on the bed and pulling the lid up. "I'm not that heartless."

Raven looked at the screen to see The Captain sitting in his office.

"Captain?" She said confused. Was he a traitor?

"Detective Roth, I am glad to see you are unharmed. Adonis has agreed to help us try and find you, he chose to do it over video chat." Captain Grayson said truthfully, sensing Raven's confusion. He offered a sympathetic look to her. although the screen was slightly out of focus, Captain Grayson could see that Raven was paler than usual, and had dark purple bags under her eyes. She seemed so weak and frail.

"Like I said, I'm not as evil as you may think" Adonis pointed out.

Raven ignored him and kept her eyes fixed on the screen. There was one person that she was desperate to see.

Something was obviously happening outside of the Captain's door, as he stood up and leaned forward to look out. Raven caught him doing a hand movement, like a signal, and seconds later Starfire was in view. Captain Grayson whispered something to her and then sat back down in his seat.

Starfire glanced at the screen and looked pained when she saw how Raven looked. She hurried out of the office to do as she was asked as quickly as she could. She didn't look back.

(Scene Break)

"G, you need to sleep man" Victor urged his friend who hadn't moved from his desk in hours. He was supposed to have finished his shift almost ten hours ago, but had refused to stop working on finding Adonis, and more importantly Raven.

"I'll have time to sleep when Adonis is in jail, where he belongs." Garfield said, throwing another hopeless lead into the unwanted pile.

"He's playin' a game with you dude, you know that. He won't hurt Raven, it's you he wants." Victor tried to sound helpful but failed.

"She shouldn't be suffering because of me. Maybe if I hadn't been so lazy a few years back and had actually fond proof of Adonis' attacks he would still be in prison, most likely serving a life sentence." Garfield threw yet another stack of paper to the side.

"Look man-" Victor begun but was cut off by Starfire.

"Detective Logan? Captain Grayson wishes to speak with you. He would also like you to join him Sergeant." She said softly though she looked upset.

Garfield got up quicker than he had ever moved.

The worst thoughts ran through his head. Starfire had looked deeply upset. Was the Captain about to inform him that they had found Raven's body abandoned in some ditch? Had she been murdered because of his own mistakes?

Relief washed over him as soon as he saw her face on the screen of Captain Grayson's computer. Such relief, however was replaced once again by worry when he saw her condition.

"Raven" He said, sorrow, anger and love mixing in his voice.

"Garfield" Raven smiled, her eyes watering, she glanced quickly at Adonis and then made a sharp decision. "I'm downtown somewhere!" She shouted so everyone could hear her, "Somewhere busy, loads of police cars come by often-"

Adonis struck Raven hard on the face as he yelled "Shut up!" and he roughly pulled the laptop up, "I tried to be nice" He swore harshly and then, with the laptop in his hand, as the detectives who could nothing but watch assumed as the image of Adonis was moving as if the laptop was being carried, he slammed the door closed.

"You're going to pay for what you're doing" Garfield growled, his fists curling.

"Is that a threat Detective?" Adonis accused.

"You said this was some sorta' game." Victor spoke up, "We can't play along unless you tell us the rules"

"Oh yeah. How silly of me. I'll give you some clues as to where I am, remember the consequences if you don't find me by 8pm tonight..." Adonis said, sitting himself down on a tattered looking sofa, "Look to where our first meeting was Logan, read the sign, repeat the slogan. From those words you shall find, the path to the girl on your mind. See? I even made it rhyme for you. I hope to see you soon Detectives."

Garfield repeated the rhyme in his head to retain the clues.

There was a knock at the door on Adonis' side, and he stood up with an evil grin on his face, "Oh, and one more thing" He said as he made his way to the door, "It would be too easy if it were just one bad guy against all of you, so I invited a friend." He opened the door, but all the detective's could see was Adonis' face as he greeted his guest. "

Garfield's stomach twisted in rage.

"Come say hello to the kind policemen" Adonis said mockingly.

The guest joined Adonis onscreen, and the detective's simultaneously sucked in their breathes.

"Hello Detectives, it has been a while" The guest said before he cut them off, leaving them all frozen in understanding at how sinister this could become.

Garfield shook himself out of it, "c'mon. If we didn't have reason to find her before, we do now" He said, making his way out of the office, grabbing his jacket and heading for the elevator. The image of Malchior smirking on the screen beside Adonis playing over and over in his head, making his blood boil.

Adonis was going to pay for what he was doing, no matter what.

(Scene Break)

Garfield took a quick left followed by a sharp right.

"Look man I know we're in a rush but we still have to stay within the speed limit!" Victor said, holding tightly onto his seat.

Garfield pulled on the breaks, "We're here" he said flatly, getting out of the car.

There it was, the steelworks factory where Garfield had first met Adonis. At that time he had seemed harmless and was only a suspect. He had seemed nice, gentle and even had an alibi.

Garfield hated how easily mislead he had been.

The factory had now shut down, and a "sorry we're closing" sign remained.

That couldn't be the sign Adonis had meant. For one it wasn't a slogan.

"Yo G! Think I found it!" Victor called from where he was standing. He was near one of the abandoned loading entrances, Garfield could just make out a flyer stuck to the exterior.

When he approached his friend, Victor read the flyer aloud, "We've downsized! You can still get the hardest steel in Gotham" There was their slogan, "at these three locations"

Below the writing was a picture of a map of Gotham, with three locations marked with an X.

"That's it!" Garfield said snatching the flyer from the wall. "We gotta check out these three places."

"Raven did say somethin' about cops driving past where she was." Victor pointed out.

"Yeah?" Garfield said as they hurried back to the car.

"Well, it's unlikely that cops are patrollin' the posh part of town that one of those X's are, I mean it's where the Captain's dad lives. There's a very slim chance that she's there." Victor said.

"We should split up then." Garfield concluded, "You take the X on the left, I'll take the one on the right." He radioed into the precinct, requesting another car and waved Victor off.

As soon as the car arrived Garfield jumped into it and sped off without a second glance back at where he had found the flyer. "Hold on Rae" He said in the empty car, "I'm gonna' find you"


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24-

December 22nd, 2:10pm

Raven really shouldn't have still been shocked by Malchior's sudden appearances at things, but she was. Adonis had unlocked her cuffs, but warned her that if she stepped one foot out of line then they would be put back on, even tighter than before.

He had led her out of the bedroom and into the shabby living room, where she was told to sit. Then she heard his voice, as cold as ever.

"Hello Raven" Malchior said from the kitchen doorway, "You don't look so good"

Raven's heart raced, her stomach twisted in revulsion. Of course he had something to do with this.

Malchior smirked, "I must say Raven, your father is very disappointed with you. As am I. I hear you've been running about with that partner of yours, I honestly thought you had better taste than that."

"Why are you here" Raven asked, trying to keep her head.

Malchior shrugged casually, "Adonis is an old friend of mine, I helped get him on parole so that this Garfield boy will no longer be a problem for us."

Raven's breath came out sharply, "And how do you intend on doing that?"

Malchior made his way over to Raven and sat across from her. He half turned around, apparently stretching. Raven caught a glimpse of his trademark dragon tattoo that ran from the bottom of his spine all the way up to behind his ear.

"I'm sure you know that he is out searching for you, soon enough he will find you here"

"He won't come alone." Raven pointed out.

"Why do you think I'm here? I'm the distraction. I'll hold you at knife point, while they try to negotiate with me, Adonis will fire the fatal shot that will kill your little boyfriend." Machior said so casually that it sounded like he was talking about something much less severe.

"You won't get the chance. He will be wearing a vest." Raven said defensively.

"Oh, he won't be aiming for the chest" Malchior smiled.

Adonis came back into the room holding a glass of water. Raven eyed it hungrily, momentarily forgetting what Malchior had just said and focussing on survival.

"Looks like that arrangement may not be happening since your lover boy is running out of time." Adonis took a swig of the water and sat down.

"What are you saying?" Malchior asked.

"Did I forget to mention that I gave him a time limit?" Adonis said sarcastically, "Sorry for leaving that one detail out of my own plan"

"Yes. You did forget to mention that. And may I remind you that you would still be in prison and unable to carry out your little plan if it had not been for me?" Malchior started to tense, a sign that Raven knew meant he was about to get angry. "How long does this time limit of yours have left?" And just as the words left Malchior's mouth, a beeping noise from Adonis' phone indicated that the time was up.

Adonis held the phone out, showing the number's 00:00:00 on it, flashing in red. He turned to Raven, "Looks like your time is up"

(Scene Break)

Malchior stood up and blocked Raven from Adonis' view.

"I don't think you understand our arrangement here, but nothing happens to her, do you understand?" Malchior warned taking Raven by complete surprise. This was the man that had minutes ago told her of his plan to hold her at knife point while she watches the man she loves die before her own eyes.

Adonis stood up, almost the same height as Malchior, "I don't think you understand that I have needs, needs that have gone unsatisfied for a very long time. Actions must have consequences, this is Logan's consequence. I get to have his girl."

Malchior put his arm out shoving Adonis back, "I'm afraid that's not going to happen"

"Oh yeah, and who's going to stop me? I'll let you in on the fun, c'mon. She'll be a real good girl for us, I'm sure."

Malchior paused for a second contemplating his decision. After a few moments, he turned back towards Raven, reaching out.

(Scene Break)

Garfield hurried up the flights of stairs in the rundown apartment block. He had tried the floors worth of homes so far and hadn't found Adonis or Raven in a single one yet.

There was only one vacant apartment on this floor, and Garfield could hear growing voices of angst.

He prayed this was it.

With his gun in hand, and some of his SWAT team downstairs, he knocked the door, "Police! Open up!"

He waited for all of three seconds, and when he didn't hear any movement he burst the door open and ran in through a shabby hallway and into an even more rundown living room.

There was nobody there, but the television was blaring, some drama TV show playing on repeat.

Frustration ran through Garfield's veins, he picked up the television remote and threw it at the screen, smashing it and leaving an ugly scar on its once perfect screen.

He stormed out of the apartment, radioing to the SWAT team to get to Victor's location as soon as possible.

He tried to get a hold of Victor as he pounded down the stairs but he had no luck.

Garfield couldn't shake the feeling that things were about to become very serious.

(Scene Break)

Raven tensed as she saw that Malchior was reaching out in her direction. Every inch of her body was shaking.

Malchior rolled his eyes dramatically as bent down quickly, reached under the sofa and pulled out his knife.

Raven's eyes widened as the bizarre scene unfolded before her.

Malchior held the knife loosely in his hand. It was almost a miniature version of a sword, with its own embroidery.

"Let me tell you a little story, Adonis." Malchior said, throwing the knife up and down dangerously carelessly, "A man tried to kill me with this very knife, he was a do-gooder, an awful type if you ask me. He wanted to half the profits of our deal. I killed that man with his own knife because he wouldn't comply with what I wanted. And I warn you I have done it many times again after that, and I will do it now if I must."

"But this was my plan" Adonis argued, "I deserve what I want. I'm the only one who is willing to kill Logan, you need me."

Malchior grinned, lowering his knife and pacing, "perhaps." Malchior said, "but you may have already done enough."

As he finished his sentence the door burst open.

In a flash Adonis grabbed his gun from the table and shot at the person walking in.

Raven looked over desperately at the doorway.

The Sergeant was leaning against the wall, gripping his arm tightly, a wound bleeding near his shoulder.

"Ugh" Malchior said in disgust, "You are hopeless." He launched his knife at his target, and in two seconds Adonis was slumped dead on the floor, the knife wedged between his brows.

Raven ignored the trail of blood that was slowly flowing from Adonis' wound.

She jumped up off of the sofa and rushed to Victor's side while Malchior yanked his knife out of Adonis' body. He wiped it down on the dead man's t-shirt.

"Sergeant, do tell me if you have called your friends here?" Malchior asked.

"Course I did. You're under arrest Malchior." Victor said, wincing.

Raven looked around, urgently looking for something to clean the wound with. She spotted a discarded towel on the kitchen floor and fetched it while Malchior was being placed under arrest.

"I'm sure I am." Malchior said. "Tell Logan you're welcome from me will you?"

"Wait!" Victor called out but Malchior had already left the room and climbed out of the window.

Raven pressed the towel on Victor's wound, "We'll get him, just not right now."

"Are you okay?" He asked concerned.

Raven smiled slightly, "I'm doing better than you are at the moment."

"Raven you're real pale" Victor said.

"I'm always pale." She said.

"When was the last time you ate?"

"It doesn't matter." Raven said, fighting the dizziness and the clouds that were starting to clog her vision.

A noise made them both look over to where Adonis' body was lying, it sounded like he was grumbling.

But he was dead?

"What the-?" Victor began to remark before they witnessed Adonis move, his gun in his hand, he outstretched it.

He looked at Raven, his eyes scarily pale, "If I can't kill him, I'll kill you."

Three gunshots from the doorway flew across the room and hit Adonis in the chest before he could even take his shot.

"No you won't" Garfield said, his gun still in his hand and his eyes wild yet deep in concentration.

Raven stood up, ready to embrace him but fell forward into him and slid down his torso.

Garfield caught her arms as she fell unconscious.

It felt so good to have her in his arms again, even though she was probably not in the best condition.

He lifted her up and lay her down on the sofa as he called in a bus to take away the casualties and the dead body.

He looked down at his dead foe on the floor and felt his shoulders lighten.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25- Children

December 25th, 10:39am

"You didn't have to" Raven smiled as she let Garfield drop a silver parcel onto her lap.

Garfield sat down beside her, "Well I did" he grinned.

She examined the present in her hands and gently shook it. It rattled slightly and she eyed it curiously.

"Go on, open it" Garfield encouraged.

"The wrapping is nice" Raven observed as she began to rip it as carefully as she could.

Garfield watched her with interest, waiting for her reaction.

She smiled softly as she pulled out the first gift.

Raven pulled the fluffy deep blue blanket up to her face, rubbing the soft fabric on her cheek.

"Do you like it?" Garfield asked.

"I love it"

"There's still something else in there" Garfield said.

Raven peered into the package and pulled out the small box. It was the type of box that usually holds jewellery.

She opened it, hoping that Garfield hadn't spent too much money on her.

She put her hand over he mouth when she saw what it was.

A silver chain with a tiny black bird on the end of it.

"It's a Raven" Raven said, her eyes filling with joyful tears.

"Heh, yeah" Garfield said.

Raven pulled him into a hug, "thank you" She held the chain in her hands delicately, "I wish I had a chance to get you something"

She had been in hospital suffering from dehydration for the past couple of days, and had only gotten home on Christmas Eve.

"Having you safe and home is the best present I could ask for" Garfield said.

Raven kissed him softly, "hm, maybe there is a something I can give you" She grinned mischievously.

(Scene Break)

Starfire beamed happily, "You really mean it?!"

Dick nodded as he put the turkey into the oven, "Of course I mean it. I am serious about you, and I think our colleagues should know"

Starfire smiled, "you mean your friends?"

"Well I suppose they are friends in a way." Dick said thoughtfully.

Starfire stood behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, "you have invited them for dinner, is that not a sign of friendship?"

"Hm, looks who's becoming a detective" Dick smiled, spinning around and kissing the foreign girl on the lips softly.

She received the kiss playfully as her cheeks lit up with joy.

Dick went back to preparing the dinner, a similar grin on his face as the one worn by his girlfriend. He felt almost giddy at the thought of announcing his relationship to his coworkers.

Of course he had been waiting until he knew if Logan and Roth were an item, to save either of them feeling down about another successful relationship beginning because of the job.

They had thus far not said anything, but he knew love when he saw it.

He kept on smiling as he prepared the vegetables, almost singing a tune to himself.

Starfire left the kitchen, more excited than ever for the night ahead.

(Scene Break)

"Vic stop shuffling like that" Karen said as they waited patiently at Captain Grayson's front door.

"I can't help it I'm freezin'" Victor pointed out, rubbing his hands together speedily.

Grayson's secretary opened the door and greeted them both with a warm hug, "I'm sorry that I was not fast at answering the door" she apologised welcoming the couple into the house, "we did not realise how late it is getting"

Karen and Victor shared a look that told the other that they knew exactly what caused the delay, and they hid their smirks.

"Merry Christmas" Dick Grayson said as Karen and Victor entered the lounge area followed by Starfire.

Dick was wearing a very casual dress shirt without the tie and was almost slouching in his armchair, glass in hand.

"Merry Christmas!" Karen smiled, nudging Victor to repeat it.

"Would you care for a drink?" Dick asked, standing up and taking the bottle of eight year old scotch, only used on the specialist of occasions, from its cabinet.

"Yeah" Victor said gratefully, "it's Christmas Day and I haven't had anything to drink yet"

"None for me thanks" Karen said, "I'm driving"

The door went again before Dick got the chance to offer her another drink. Starfire bounced out of the room, red hair flying behind her.

"She seems happy" Victor observed.

"It's her first proper Christmas, I wanted to make it special for her." Dick said in an unusual moment of honesty.

"We'll make sure it is Captain" Victor smiled handsomely.

Even though they were the only guests that were left to arrive, the three in the lounge knew who it was before they saw them thanks to Garfield's loud cheerful voice.

"Looks like Starfire isn't the only one who's extra happy today" Victor chuckled.

(Scene Break)

Raven tugged at her dress as she watched herself in the bathroom mirror. Dinner was just about to start and she had excused herself to double check she looked presentable.

Garfield had told her she looked gorgeous in her slick black dress, but she didn't feel it.

He had tried so hard to make today he really good day, and she had tried so hard to forget all the bad things in her life, but she just couldn't. Especially not in this dress.

She had complained about having nothing to wear, so Garfield being Garfield rummaged through her closet and picked this out.

Raven didn't want to tell him that Malchior picked it out specially for her. That he told her to wear it so he had something to look at.

She didn't want to bring that demon up on Christmas.

Pushing her hair out of her face, Raven finished up in the bathroom, and made the long track to the dining hall.

On her way, she admired the stunning interior of the Captain's mansion. He really was blessed to be adopted by Gotham's most eligible billionaire.

When she finally got back and took her seat, the food was on the table.

Dick stood up as she sat down, he held his glass in his hand.

"A toast" He said.

The party rose to their feet, Garfield giving Raven's hand a squeeze of encouragement, sensing her feelings.

"Christmas is a time to be with people. Friends, family, colleagues… Or all three. Relationships are something to be treasured, something that many people take for granted these days… And that's why today, I'm not going to take my relationship for granted. I'd like to take this opportunity to officially announce my relationship with Starfire."

Nobody at the table looked surprised.

"It's about time" Victor teased.

Dick cleared his throat and continued, "to friends and family" he raised his glass and everyone done the same.

"Since we are doing announcements" Karen said, her face beaming, "Victor and I have some news also. I'm pregnant"

Raven swore she heard Garfield almost choke but said nothing.

"I am so the happy for you!" Starfire said in glee.

"Congratulations" Raven said.

Victor out his arm around Karen and kissed the side of her head.

"You hear that Gar? you're gonna' be an uncle!" Victor said.

"Dude…" was all Garfield could say.

"When is the baby due?" Dick asked.

"Actually it's babies" Karen said receiving another set of shocked gasps and congratulations from the table. "Summer, the twins are due in summer"

"This is so cool" Garfield finally said. "You're gonna' be a dad! And you're gonna' be a mom!"

"That is how it works Garfield" Karen laughed.

"I'm so happy for you guys!" Garfield said in complete awe. "Little mini Vic's runnin' about!"

"They're going to be mini Karen's too Garfield" Raven pointed out

Karen gave Raven a grateful nod, "Exactly, I'm the one that's going to be most of the work before they come, so they are very much mini Karen's right now."

Victor kissed his wife again, a wide smiling plastered on his face, he was beyond happy.

(Scene Break)

Garfield caught Raven in the hallway, catching her by the hand and spinning her around to face him as she was making her way to the lounge. In the short time it had taken her to go to the bathroom and back, Garfield had apparently somehow consumed a full glass of strong smelling liquor.

"How great is it that Vic is gonna' be a dad?!" Garfield said, his words slurring.

Raven was not nearly as drunk as Garfield and she looked wearily at him as he staggered back and forth, struggling against gravity.

"It's great Garfield." She said trying to swerve around him to join the party in the lounge.

Garfield put his hand on Raven's waist, pulling her in to him. She let him do so as she was now more comfortable around him and they were at times extremely close in proximity. He kissed her passionately, albeit drunkenly but still passionately.

"What do you think our children will be like?" Garfield asked pulling Raven even closer to him.

Raven stiffened under his arms.

"Why don't we get you home?" She asked, trying to keep her voice cool but it shook uncertainly.

Garfield wanted to protest but couldn't, "Are you trying to get me alone Detective?" He giggled.

"Yes, that's my plan." Raven said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. She placed Garfield's arm over her shoulder, he mumbled something incomprehensible as Raven moved him into the lounge.

"What did you say?" She asked as the walked.

Garfield moaned in tiredness, "I said that I love you. I love you. You, Raven Roth I love you. I love love love love you. I love you. I love you. Raven is the person I love!" His voice began to rise as he sang.

Raven decided to take no noticed as she excused herself and her drunken partner, called a cab and got him home.

It was not until she was lying, staring at the ceiling with a passed out Garfield breathing heavily beside her that she began to consider it.

Facing his back, she ran her fingers softly over his bare skin, he was so real. The most real thing in her life.

She loved him, she knew she did, but love never really worked out for her.

Closing her eyes, she concluded that this may have been her best Christmas ever. And Garfield's confession was the greatest gift had ever received.


End file.
